WORDS BY ANNIE STUDHOLME & IMAGES SUPPLIED
Methven is turning it on for the New Zealand Ploughing Championships to be held over the weekend of April 18 and 19. In what is truly a community effort, the event will bring together top ploughing competitors from across the country to compete in various categories, including conventional, reversible, vintage and horse ploughing.
Local hopes will lie with Tryphena Carter and Matt Ridge in the Silver Plough conventional class, having won qualifying events, while John Booth of Dayboo Stud will compete in the horse ploughing.
Competition will be tough, with strong entries across the board, including last year's winner of the Silver Plough conventional, Riversdale farmer Mark Dillion, and reversible winner Malcolm Taylor, of Putaruru, both of whom are off to compete at the 71st World Ploughing Championships in Osijek, Croatia, this September. Contestants are vying for two spots to compete at the 72nd World Ploughing Championships in 2027, which are provisionally to be held in Kenya.
Tryphena comes into the event with years of experience, having competed in the nationals 15 times. Ploughing is in her blood. She started ploughing aged 14, following in the footsteps of her father, the late Gordon Carter (Rakaia). Having spent her childhood on the sidelines, it was inevitable she would get hooked. The camaraderie of the sport has kept her involved despite her busy job as an internal appraiser for Rabobank.
“I’ve grown up with a lot of them. It’s just like another family. It takes a long time to get to the top, so you just don’t want to give it up. It’s a lot of practice and perseverance. There’s a lot more to it than people realise. It’s quite mathematical.”
While there is skill involved, Tryphena says luck also played a huge part. “You never know who might come out on top on the day. You never really know who will win. It depends on so many things. Things can go right or wrong. You might get a bad plot, a breakdown, or a stone at the wrong time, and that can change everything.”
It’s that unpredictability that is part of the attraction for fellow competitor, Highbank cropping farmer Matt Ridge. Winner of the WG Miller Trophy, awarded to the highest-placed competitor for 35 years and under at last year's nationals, Matt is a relative newcomer to the sport with just six seasons under his belt. He comes from a long line of ploughmen, with both his father and grandfather having competed.
While he admitted he still had a lot to learn, he is extremely grateful for the wonderful support he has received. “When I first started, I had a lot of great people to teach me. To get the ploughing good, you have to make lots of tiny adjustments. Every paddock is different. That first strikeout, you find out what the ground conditions are like. It doesn’t always do what you expect, and that’s where your ability to adapt comes in. There is a lot of accumulated knowledge. Those who have been doing it for a long time can just adjust a lot faster.” But it’s still anybody’s on the day, says Matt.
Matt qualified for the nationals, winning the Silver Plough conventional class at the Rakaia meet last August.
Both Tyrphena and Matt are excited about competing in front of a home crowd. With the new season only just getting started, they are both in full preparation, getting in as much practice before the event gets underway.
Event secretary Sandy Redmond says the Methven community has really got behind the event. Local schools have utilised fundraising opportunities, providing lunches on training days in the lead-up to the event, while the local Methven Volunteer Fire Brigade will be in charge of the bar at the Mount Hutt Community Hall for the Sunday night dinner.
Though it required a massive amount of time and effort from a group of volunteers to put together the nationals, Sandy says it was fabulous to host the event in Methven. It had previously hosted the nationals only once but was the host of the World Ploughing Championships in 2010.
While this event would not be as big as the world's, Sandy encouraged people to come out and enjoy the action. It will be a fantastic day out for the whole family.
Alongside the ploughing, the event will have lots to keep the family entertained, from trade stands and food and craft stalls to a dinosaur dig, balloon rides, a bouncy castle, balloon animal twisting, a tractor pull, go karts, and pony rides. Methven Vintage will have a steam engine pulling a people mover to get people around the site and will also be operating a demonstration ring. This includes thrashing and ploughing demonstrations, chaff cutting with a wood mill and a tin mill, barrel racing with tractors, Lanz Bulldog crank-up, Field Marshall crank-up, car parade, tractor parade, stationary engines, traction engines, traction engine ploughing, clothesline racing, and spud racing.
Ruralco has also got on board with a children’s colouring-in competition, with entries welcomed over the weekend or dropped in-store at any of the Ruralco branches prior to the event.
The ploughing will go ahead regardless of the weather. The event is being held on Andrew Currie’s farm on Dip Road.