Keeping parallel to your Neighbour

RANSOMES YL183

Member
Arable Farmer
Hi all. I would like to get your opinions on what best to do at a ploughing match when your neighbours ploughing is miles out of line. I had a match in 2019, it was one which I was hoping to qualify for my county. My neighbours ploughing was poor all day, now he was enjoying his day, his tractor was all done up and his plough was in good order but set poorly, when I measured between us there was 20inches of a difference in places and it varied along the length of the plot, it was also 8 inches deep. After a lot of head scratching I ran my plough very light on the first run with back furrow doing very little, then set up my poles on next run on his side, to plough two furrows near enough and sometimes on top of my last run. Failed to keep dead straight then and struggled on that side to the finish, was disappointing as otherwise my plot was nice. I didn't qualify at that match but luckily done very well at the rest and qualified for all Ireland, which wasn't held yet😭😭. Thanks in advance
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
As long as your side is straight it should be simple, I use stubble to make the straight line on the neighbors work, or maize stalks if we're ploughing maize. Should do it in one run if you're fully up to speed.
Some play tricks at some matches, where if you have someone ploughing up to you and you want to wind them up, you just move your pole a couple of feet off at one end, you're already aware that it'll be out on your side so simple to sort out but when next door measures up to you they have 2ft plus whatever their error is their side.
Then if you want to be really sneaky, you take off another run his side and then pretend you cant count!! that then leaves him with one run the parallel his plot up.
I admit to doing all the above but learnt about it when it was done to me by a 5 time National Champion from Hereford. And I admit to doing it to @TrickyT whenever i get the chance!!!
 

MrNoo

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Cirencester
You can also use your width adjuster to take kinks out and even parallel/straighten up the plot. Although it will show as you end up with a wider front furrow one end then a narrow one t'other. But if you do it gradually it is much less evident.
 

Mydexta

Member
Location
Dundee/angus
I’m sure you get 2 runs on the neighbours side which are not judged and can be used to make the plots parallel, however I’m led to believe that if it’s miles out, you cannot drive on the other lads work if needed

it’s the lads who come
And ask how far out they are, then when you tell them they laugh and walk away giggling to themselves that really pee me off
 

Pennine Ploughing

Member
Mixed Farmer
2 foot, pppffff thats not bad, ye wanna try plooing narth o the border, at the national in 17, my plot wer 7feet six wider than the tother end, wat a bloody carry on, asked the stewards if I could draw a new scratch to square if off, , they said it was not allowed, and a judge said he wid doc me points for not plooing all me plot,

Will say the then chairman, a very nice upstanding gentleman, came and measured it, shook his head, and said just draw a scratch, and leave that bit, he would sort it out,,
Never ever in my time of Ploughing have I seen 2 stewards never leave my plot and watch me all day, trying to catch me out, never looked at anyone else in my class,
God they know how to make the English welcome,

As for @MrNoo , your not half scotch are you, pulling them tricks
 

RANSOMES YL183

Member
Arable Farmer
Thanks for replying MrNoo and my dexta, in my case the man in question meant no harm atall, he was out for a day with his tractor, once the field was brown behind him he was happy, my problem was he finished deep very crooked, like a snake and when I tried to make it parallel to mine, which on that occasion was spot on, my tractor actually fell into his furrows and I failed to hold it straight, I would have preferred to put up my poles outside his and let his be, is that allowed?usually a person learning to plough or a man out for a day with his tractor would be placed first or last in the plots, but at this match numbers were drawn from a hat, other competitors told me stay outside his ploughing but I tried to straighten it
 

Pennine Ploughing

Member
Mixed Farmer
Thanks Pennine ploughing, don't think it's legal over here either to ignore neighbours ploughing
Under SOP rules ( yours maybe different) you cannot leave a wheel mark on or disturb their ploughing, you have to do it all with your own plough as you do you first run, measure off at many point along the furrow wall, and adjust the plough accordingly going down the field, get it as straight as possible, on the second run, do the finer tuning,
If its still not just right, then keep correcting it as you go but be more subtle about it, however only do it on your neighbours side if your is straight, and keep your own straight all the time,
You need to be getting the right number of furrows to finish, so bare that in mind when you are straighten it up,
 

RANSOMES YL183

Member
Arable Farmer
Yes it's the same rules here, just we plough 16 furrows before ploughing to the neighbour, sometimes if the plots are a little narrow, you will struggle if you don't get it spot on parallel, on first run at the neighbours side. You will see the judges counting the neighbours eight furrows and making sure you didn't interfere with them, but when there's a massive difference between the two it's hard to sort without touching their final furrow, if you hope to get the plot parallel on two runs
 

TrickyT

Member
A topic after my own heart!

Have seen all of the tricks that are done as as @MrNoo mentioned the worst (or even best) one is to take an extra 'accidental' run which means you have only one run to straighten things out.

I have only once not ploughed very straight in my early years, and it was certainly not done deliberately.

However, I did have to once plough up to this where they were nearly 2 feet out after their opening and I complained to the judge, was told that I had 2 runs to sort it out and I would be penalized if I drove over their ploughing.

This was their second run to show how bad it was. They had straightened out their side, but my side was 2 foot out!

16 opening.jpg
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
As long as your side is straight it should be simple, I use stubble to make the straight line on the neighbors work, or maize stalks if we're ploughing maize. Should do it in one run if you're fully up to speed.
Some play tricks at some matches, where if you have someone ploughing up to you and you want to wind them up, you just move your pole a couple of feet off at one end, you're already aware that it'll be out on your side so simple to sort out but when next door measures up to you they have 2ft plus whatever their error is their side.
Then if you want to be really sneaky, you take off another run his side and then pretend you cant count!! that then leaves him with one run the parallel his plot up.
I admit to doing all the above but learnt about it when it was done to me by a 5 time National Champion from Hereford. And I admit to doing it to @TrickyT whenever i get the chance!!!
For fudge sake
 

Pennine Ploughing

Member
Mixed Farmer
We had a nice old chap up here, he was a whole plot out as he drove to the wrong peg at far end, so 2 foot would be a walk in the park.
While your all thinking its hard to get it square and parallel, try Ploughing High Cut,
Where your plough about 8" furrows, and 2 boats and seemers on the previous 2 furrows, and are attached to the plough framework, and have to get it all straighten out,
You boys only have the plough to look after, try High Cut, where not only you have the plough, but the press wheels and boats to alter when taking out any bends, and twice as much things to look after, and if you catch a big stone and the plough frame moves, it then affects 4 furrows not just 2, and try sorting that lot out.
And North of the border, back in 17, like in my previous post above, I got a warning for what they deemed handling, when adjusting my boats, yet under the rules up there, it states you can have an assistant all the time with you on the plot, and some of the said assistants had hand held hoes, and not only shaped any bad furrows, but also pulled any grass/straw out of the furrows, yet as said the stewards never left my plot, turning a blind eye to the rest
 

Mydexta

Member
Location
Dundee/angus
We had a nice old chap up here, he was a whole plot out as he drove to the wrong peg at far end, so 2 foot would be a walk in the park.
While your all thinking its hard to get it square and parallel, try Ploughing High Cut,
Where your plough about 8" furrows, and 2 boats and seemers on the previous 2 furrows, and are attached to the plough framework, and have to get it all straighten out,
You boys only have the plough to look after, try High Cut, where not only you have the plough, but the press wheels and boats to alter when taking out any bends, and twice as much things to look after, and if you catch a big stone and the plough frame moves, it then affects 4 furrows not just 2, and try sorting that lot out.
And North of the border, back in 17, like in my previous post above, I got a warning for what they deemed handling, when adjusting my boats, yet under the rules up there, it states you can have an assistant all the time with you on the plot, and some of the said assistants had hand held hoes, and not only shaped any bad furrows, but also pulled any grass/straw out of the furrows, yet as said the stewards never left my plot, turning a blind eye to the rest

I think I remember speaking to you that day, you didn’t seem best pleased
 

Mydexta

Member
Location
Dundee/angus
To right, it was not a local match out in the sticks, this was at National level, as you well know

If it’s the one I think it was, then I remember 2 stewards having a conversation about disqualifying someone in our class because his plough didn’t have discs fitted when everyone else did.

the competitor involved couldn’t believe what he was hearing
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Anything judged by farmers is a farce
I remember entering our first big bale silage in a show
The judge said it was clearlythe best sweetest silage, but couldnt put it first because it was baled and not chopped
That was the end of that nonsense
 

Howard150

Member
Location
Yorkshire
Dear oh dear. According to the rules ‘you are allowed two runs against your neighbour which are not judged.’ Regardless of how many runs your neighbour does - you are allowed TWO runs. You are not allowed to ‘mark’ your opponents ploughing either with your wheels or your plough. Strictly speaking then your opponent should be disqualified for an extra run up to his crown as his plough is engaging ground outside his plot.
I had similar situations in the Europeans at Worksop and the Six Nations at Lossiemouth.
Worksop was unbelievably hard and Dai Kennedy struggled with epics. Both there and in Lossiemouth in some places I had a shortfall in excess of 3 furrows. In both cases the difference was not uniform down the length of the plot.
In both instances I used a combination of small bundles of stubble in the furrow bottom and a screwdriver on-land to mark where the front disc ran.
At Worksop I got away with it. Not so at Lossiemouth. The plots were the longest one normally encounters and it took forever. Despite telling the Welsh steward that I wanted time for it, no time was given.
We also had a time issue with the crown. Having to dig out and carry off a barrow load of cobbles, some as big as your head, despite asking for time, I was not given any.
Strangely enough it was a Welsh ploughman ploughing up to me. A Welsh ploughman I was ploughing up to and strangely enough a Welsh steward who awarded the deduction. Just in passing it was a Welsh man that won overall. I was not told of the dock at the time but became aware just before the prize giving.
I still won the class by a large margin but lost out on the overall by a very small margin.
There are several morals in this story.
Bias happens. Live with it, get over it.
Whatever you do then get authority from either a judge or a steward and make sure it is recorded.
In a big competition you will not be allowed to put sticks up.
There is no substitute for experience when rectifying errors like this.
 
Last edited:

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 81 42.2%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 68 35.4%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.6%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.6%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,294
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top