Opening split a hit

Murray Grainger makes the opening split in the vintage class using his 1954 Ferguson TEA tractor and Reid & Gray plough on the first day of the New Zealand Ploughing Championships in Milton last week. PHOTO: SHAWN MCAVINUE

Splitting the soil is easy — putting it back together is the real skill, Taieri ploughman Murray Grainger says.

Mr Grainger (63), of Mosgiel, was one of 10 competitors in the vintage class at the New Zealand Ploughing Championships in Milton last week.

Fellow competitors admired his opening split, one walking back to his tractor saying he might as well go home now.

Mr Grainger said the opening split was the easy part of the competition.

"It’s putting it back together again — that’s the harder one."

He was up to the challenge, winning the vintage class with his 1954 Ferguson TEA tractor and a Reid & Gray plough, which was manufactured in Dunedin sometime between 1945 and 1950.

The appeal of the sport was to make a neat job, he said.

"It’s satisfying."

He was born and raised on a sheep, dairy and crop farm, but the family sold the property after his father died when he was young.

His uncle was a keen on the sport and would watch him compete.

When his uncle signalled he was getting to old to compete and planned to sell his Reid & Gray plough,

the news spurred his decision to give the sport a go, which prompted his uncle to keep the plough.

"That’s how it all started."

PHOTO: SHAWN MCAVINUE

He had competed in a dozen national finals and won the vintage class in Kirwee in 2020.

In Milton, the stubble plot, previously used to grow barley and rapeseed, featured more of a contour than some of the flatter plots of his fellow competitors.

"If you get a real dip in a paddock, the plough can come out, so you’ve got to be careful because you miss a piece and lose points."

The soil in the stubble plot was drier than he was expecting.

He would have preferred the soil to be wetter so it "turns over beautiful".