Dodgy committees.

Interesting you say every day was a ploughing match, its certainly how I remember it as a kid, it was a skill and you got your arse kicked if you made a mess! If you out and about and you noticed someones messy job, it was talked about. Nobody seems to bother now - brown side up as quick as f***!, that's if they still bother to plough it.

This was of course the whole points of matches (as I'm sure the experienced guys know). Ploughing was/is a skill, if you want to showcase your skill you enter a competition to see whose best, which happens in all 'skills' in life, whether your baking a cake, cycling a race or climbing a mountain. In all these 'skills' you aspire to use the best kit in the best way possible, whilst trying to keep to the rules.

Must have not been long out of primary school when you did that Roy :D:D:D
I ploughed thousands of acres with a TS 78 on a new performance Super Major before we got onto Yellow Hydreins, thousands more with a 5000 and Yellow Hydrein, more still with a 165 and Red Hydrein. Rigs set in a similar manner. Finishes done to leave a single furrow. Reversibles were not long in coming. Every day was a ploughing match. People used to look over hedges then and there were more of them so the work needed to look right in order to avoid the stick that came with bad work.
 
Well they should be marked down, its supposed to be uniform level and straight (straight off the score sheet).

I've always thought it should be as level as possible, but there are plenty of the so called top men over here who regularly produce high crowns but never lose points for it. 4 furrows sitting up above everything else has almost become the standard
 

Boohoo

Member
Location
Newtownabbey
Well they should be marked down, its supposed to be uniform level and straight (straight off the score sheet).
I agree, they should be marked down but they aren't. Sometimes the level, uniform crown scores less. It's as if those who have competed at the highest level must be right so judge everyone else against them.
 

Sprayer

Member
Location
South Derbyshire
I agree, they should be marked down but they aren't. Sometimes the level, uniform crown scores less. It's as if those who have competed at the highest level must be right so judge everyone else against them.

One of the biggest contractors round here reckons the high crowns take more dealing with than the finishing furrows. A good finish is easily filled with todays kit but a high start takes some levelling some are still found by the automatic combine headers leaving long stubble in strips years after.
 

John 1594

Member
Location
Cambridgeshire
Interesting you say every day was a ploughing match, its certainly how I remember it as a kid, it was a skill and you got your arse kicked if you made a mess! If you out and about and you noticed someones messy job, it was talked about. Nobody seems to bother now - brown side up as quick as f***!, that's if they still bother to plough it.

This was of course the whole points of matches (as I'm sure the experienced guys know). Ploughing was/is a skill, if you want to showcase your skill you enter a competition to see whose best, which happens in all 'skills' in life, whether your baking a cake, cycling a race or climbing a mountain. In all these 'skills' you aspire to use the best kit in the best way possible, whilst trying to keep to the rules.

Some of us do try and make a bit of effort, this isnt next to the road, and on that heavy land its probably the best its ploughed over for a few years, just caught it right between being baked solid and getting to wet and turning into a skating rink

yes its gappy and a bit open, but it always comes down better like that than if its slabbed over with the furrow being one solid lump from headland to headland

14485022_1277842918907268_3674408951648011785_n.jpg
 

Howard150

Member
Location
Yorkshire
is straightness judged on the start now?

The self propagating executive of the SOP, in their wisdom, decided to put a single aspect in for straightness which encompasses all. This automatically disqualifies the opening.

A nonsense when the World and European have 4 aspects for straightness of.
Opening
Start
Middle work
Finish
10 points being awarded for each aspect, all added together and halved to give a final total.

Much fairer but still pointless as the greater number of competitors bunch around 6 or 7 which is not good enough to split the field properly. The excuse for just having one aspect is that it would be beyond the older end amongst us to add four scores up and halve it. Another nonsense.

If you are going to have straightness on the scoresheet then let's have it in right
Opening
Start
Middle work
Finish
Let's have 20 point for each and sorry but the argument that 'why should there be so many points for just driving up and down when the difficult aspects are the start and the finish' does not wash. Straightness is probably one of the most important and difficult aspects. True straight work is rarely seen and should be respected accordingly.
 

Pennine Ploughing

Member
Mixed Farmer
The self propagating executive of the SOP, in their wisdom, decided to put a single aspect in for straightness which encompasses all. This automatically disqualifies the opening.

A nonsense when the World and European have 4 aspects for straightness of.
Opening
Start
Middle work
Finish
10 points being awarded for each aspect, all added together and halved to give a final total.

Much fairer but still pointless as the greater number of competitors bunch around 6 or 7 which is not good enough to split the field properly. The excuse for just having one aspect is that it would be beyond the older end amongst us to add four scores up and halve it. Another nonsense.

If you are going to have straightness on the scoresheet then let's have it in right
Opening
Start
Middle work
Finish
Let's have 20 point for each and sorry but the argument that 'why should there be so many points for just driving up and down when the difficult aspects are the start and the finish' does not wash. Straightness is probably one of the most important and difficult aspects. True straight work is rarely seen and should be respected accordingly.

I take it that is a no, its not judged on the start
 

spindle

Member
Location
Hertford
Interesting you say every day was a ploughing match, its certainly how I remember it as a kid, it was a skill and you got your arse kicked if you made a mess! If you out and about and you noticed someones messy job, it was talked about. Nobody seems to bother now - brown side up as quick as f***!, that's if they still bother to plough it.

This was of course the whole points of matches (as I'm sure the experienced guys know). Ploughing was/is a skill, if you want to showcase your skill you enter a competition to see whose best, which happens in all 'skills' in life, whether your baking a cake, cycling a race or climbing a mountain. In all these 'skills' you aspire to use the best kit in the best way possible, whilst trying to keep to the rules.
Hit the nail on the head Fergie you use the best kit available to highlight your skill, not a rusting old heap of shite pulled out of the hedge the night before the match it's an art some have got some can learn and some as long as they have a hole up their a**e will never learn, you use the best available to do the job !
 

Sprayer

Member
Location
South Derbyshire
I hear an alternative system of scoring has appeared at some matches recently and a copy of score sheet is shown below. As said above all the aspects are judged but with a lot more attention paid to the straightness of the ploughing from start to finish. Straightness is important all the way through the plot and as such is marked appropriately, never one of my strong points I will hasten to mention before someone else does. Another good point about this score sheet it does not include that very controversial general appearance aspect as everything marked previously has covered it.

upload_2017-1-5_20-44-57.png
 

Ley253

Member
Location
Bath
the basic problem is that points are worth too much, its hard to split people. Things could be made very simple by reverting to the 40 points discipline of years ago. In fact thats all the score sheet above does, just makes things more complicated while doing so!. No need for straightness points, if its not straight, it doesnt score well, and with 40 points to play with the judges have the room to manoeuvre.We never had all the problems with ties till the 20 point system came in.
 

Ley253

Member
Location
Bath
Going back to that brilliant piece of instruction, I would point out that the crown as shown in the diagram, would not get many points now. Its not closed over the entire coulter face. I also notice that the ins and outs seem to have been forgotten, perhaps the standard top link had something to do with this. The furrow crests seem strange too.
Nice to have been taken back to an era when pride in your skills and equipment was important, and straightness was not confined to ploughing. My grandfather put marker poles up in the field next to the farm entrance track, when he set me up to chain harrow it! Did the same in other fields when they were rolled.
Truly, every aspect of your farm was a competition, the condition of your stock, grass, hedges, all were subject to intense dissection in the pub in the evenings.
 
Still good pub banter now when someone's f***ed up drilling and left a few rows undrilled coz they've got blocked up or got some strange colours due to dodgy spraying!

Going back to that brilliant piece of instruction, I would point out that the crown as shown in the diagram, would not get many points now. Its not closed over the entire coulter face. I also notice that the ins and outs seem to have been forgotten, perhaps the standard top link had something to do with this. The furrow crests seem strange too.
Nice to have been taken back to an era when pride in your skills and equipment was important, and straightness was not confined to ploughing. My grandfather put marker poles up in the field next to the farm entrance track, when he set me up to chain harrow it! Did the same in other fields when they were rolled.
Truly, every aspect of your farm was a competition, the condition of your stock, grass, hedges, all were subject to intense dissection in the pub in the evenings.
 

John 1594

Member
Location
Cambridgeshire
Still good pub banter now when someone's f***ed up drilling and left a few rows undrilled coz they've got blocked up or got some strange colours due to dodgy spraying!


Biggest pisstake down here nowdays usually goes to the people who leave "letterboxes" across each headland, with the use of GPS and people trying to get overlaps down to nothing, bare soil is becoming more common by the season

People running kuhn powerharrow drill combinations suffer more, the seed metring unit is actuated by a poxy little paddle switch mounted on top link, being electronic drive. This switch often fails, or sticks closed, comes loose and moves

result...a full 3/4m breed of the feild with nothing on it

but because the driver, thanks to the benefit of GPS, can spend all day on snapchat/facebook etc....he doesnt bother to look at the drill control box to make sure the metering unit is turning.
 

Sprayer

Member
Location
South Derbyshire
I take it that is a no, its not judged on the start
Surely straightness is important in all aspects of ploughing. A good straight opening leads to a good straight start which in turn leads on to a straight parallel finish. If the opening isn’t straight you’re playing catch up with the start and then the finish. I think this should be reflected in the judging AND on the score sheet all the way through, it might also make some of the furrow manipulation unnecessary.

I’m afraid my ploughing does not reflect what I am saying but I keep trying!!!!!!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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