A celebration of Clutha champion ploughman Stewart Allison will take place at the New Zealand Ploughing Championships from Friday, in the town where his family have been tilling soil for nearly 140 years.
Milton farmer Barrie Allison put his hand up to host the championships on land in his cropping operation, despite not competing in the sport.
"It was my father’s sport."
His father died in late 2006, aged 74.
For the debut, Stewart competed with a team of two Clydesdale horses from his family’s farm and was crowned champion ploughman.
At the Tokomairiro Ploughing Association match, about half of the ploughmen were on tractors and the other half were behind horses.
Barrie Allison is the fourth generation to farm the now 125ha farm Gowanbank in Allison Rd, growing crops including barley, canola, grass seed, oats, peas and wheat.
The Allison family has farmed Gowanbank since 1886.
At Gowanbank, his grandfather William Allison bred Clydesdale horses with brothers Alexander and Gordon.
"This farm didn’t have a tractor until 1956. They had to give in because tractors had taken over in the early 1950s and there was no money in breeding horses."
He recalled his father’s frustration when his grandfather sold a proven team of horses on short notice when there was ploughing work to be done on the farm.
"He’d have to break another team to finish a paddock. He was still [angry] about that when he died," Barrie said laughing.
At the time, he was knocking on the door for selection in the Otago rugby team.
Rugby got kicked to touch, Mrs Allison said.
"He thought he’d have more chance at an international trip with ploughing.".
At age 23, he qualified for his first New Zealand ploughing final on a tractor in 1955.
He went on to became the first ploughman to win the national championships final three times.
He represented New Zealand at the World Ploughing Championships in Northern Ireland in 1959, Christchurch in 1966 and Yugoslavia in 1969.
New Zealand hosted the world championship for the first time in 1966 so "he pulled out all the stops to compete on home turf".
In Christchurch, he got his best result at a world championships — a second place ploughing stubble.
After qualifying for the nationals in 1969, he learned the world championships clashed with lambing and he was busier than usual after increasing the size of his farm and mortgage and did not have time to compete overseas.
In an attempt to set himself up to fail, he tweaked his plough so he would lose points for a lack of weed control.
Rules at the time stated if someone won a national or world championship three times, they had to retire from the sport.
Consequently, he was unable to compete again until 1979, when the rule was overturned.
"From the age of 37 to 47, he wasn’t allowed to plough — that’s your prime in a mental sport."
The two-day national championships this year would be held on about 90ha the Allison family leases from Calder Stewart, opposite its headquarters, Revolution Hills, on State Highway 1.
The championships would showcase traditional ploughing techniques used before herbicide was used for weed control, Mr Allison said.
Traditionally, a ploughman created steep furrows in autumn.
The furrows, parallel channels in the soil, were left for winter so the frosty conditions could break down the soil.
When the soil dried in spring, a brush of the harrow created "a nice little tilth" to put seed in.
"That’s what real ploughing is about."
On the competition plots in Milton, weeds had been allowed to grow and were recently sprayed with herbicide so the trash would remain green for the competition but would die, no matter the quality of ploughing.
"They’ve got a ruler and measuring tapes," Mr Allison said.
National competition organiser Nigel Woodhead, of Milton, said more than 30 teams would compete across five classes — silver plough, reversible, horse, contemporary and vintage.
Challenges for competitors would be the contour of the plots and the possibility of buried fence posts, Waratahs or wire.
Each plot once had a fence line running across it, he said.
Competitors drew their plots at an icebreaker event last night.
The public could attend the event, which would include trade sites, food vendors, family entertainment and demonstrations of vintage machinery, freestyle motocross and an i-Plough, technology allowing plough settings to be adjusted from a screen in a tractor cab.
After Mr Woodhead won the Young Farmer of the Year competition in 2017, he was invited to compete at a national ploughing championship in a bid to attract young competitors to the sport.
"I loved it."
Before the competition, he set himself the goal of finishing in any position except last.
After ploughing the stubble section, he was in the middle of the leaderboard.
He finished last by a couple of points and never competed again because he did not have the time or money required to be competitive in the sport.
"I have too many hobbies I don’t do properly as it is."
He encouraged people to come to the championships to see the "best of the best" compete.
"Good ploughing is an art form."
shawn.mcavinue@alliedpress.co.nz
