Difficult Soil at Fairford,Faringdon ,Burford Ploughing Match today 30/9/17

[Tonym]

Believe me finding a site for a match is getting harder every year. Farmers on min till do not want the ground ploughed, straw is chopped and not baled, greening crops planted, overwintered stubbles etc. The list goes on. And that is before you consider access, terrain, the size of the fields and all the other things you need to put on a good match. Then there are the 75% of the farmers who would not even consider hosting a match.
When you have been looking for a site for months anything offered looks to be the answer to your prayers and you take it and are very grateful for the offer. It is then up to the organisers to make the best of what they have got by leaving out plots on bad ground extreme slopes etc. And putting the whole of one class in the same field and not putting some on chopped straw and some on bare ground as an extreme example.
If matches got cancelled because the site was not ideal there would soon be a lot less for us to go to so stop moaning, keep smiling and plough on.

 

[Ley253]

So from what I read in these posts, match ploughing has very little to do with showing what commercial ploughing should look like. I say this as I see for ploughing matches a few of you expect only the best soil conditions, which l understand to a point, but in commercial ploughing you have to cope the best you can with what you’ve got soil and plough.
I think many members of the general public that go to ploughing marches, just go for a day in the countryside, not to be too critical of the competitors ploughing.

Your quite correct that match ploughing has little in common with commercial work, its evolved into an art form, or perhaps commercial work has fallen away,(it should resemble match work, IE be straight, level and clean but without the final detailing of match work,) looking at old photographs, the latter may be correct.However, that is true of any competition with a commercial history, F1 has little to do with the M25 que, except that they both take place on a road to nowhere!
We dont expect the best land, only land that wont damage the kit, and will not stick to it, preventing the demonstration of any skill whatsoever.
Most match attending public, are there to see the ploughing, they already live in the countryside, or close enough to be influenced by its ways.Many are quite knowledgeable, and those that are not do ask questions, if often at the wrong time!
Last year, I talked to the same spectator at the world in Yorkshire, and at Petersfield and dist, in Hampshire, he was def there to see the ploughing!

 

[Ley253]

Believe me finding a site for a match is getting harder every year. Farmers on min till do not want the ground ploughed, straw is chopped and not baled, greening crops planted, overwintered stubbles etc. The list goes on. And that is before you consider access, terrain, the size of the fields and all the other things you need to put on a good match. Then there are the 75% of the farmers who would not even consider hosting a match.
When you have been looking for a site for months anything offered looks to be the answer to your prayers and you take it and are very grateful for the offer. It is then up to the organisers to make the best of what they have got by leaving out plots on bad ground extreme slopes etc. And putting the whole of one class in the same field and not putting some on chopped straw and some on bare ground as an extreme example.
If matches got cancelled because the site was not ideal there would soon be a lot less for us to go to so stop moaning, keep smiling and plough on.

Morning Tony. You dont think that perhaps there are too many matches these days, and that the competitor pool is being spead a little thinly?

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

Your quite correct that match ploughing has little in common with commercial work, its evolved into an art form, or perhaps commercial work has fallen away,(it should resemble match work, IE be straight, level and clean but without the final detailing of match work,) looking at old photographs, the latter may be correct.However, that is true of any competition with a commercial history, F1 has little to do with the M25 que, except that they both take place on a road to nowhere!
We dont expect the best land, only land that wont damage the kit, and will not stick to it, preventing the demonstration of any skill whatsoever.
Most match attending public, are there to see the ploughing, they already live in the countryside, or close enough to be influenced by its ways.Many are quite knowledgeable, and those that are not do ask questions, if often at the wrong time!
Last year, I talked to the same spectator at the world in Yorkshire, and at Petersfield and dist, in Hampshire, he was def there to see the ploughing!

Harry you said you were involved with putting a match on years ago, but the club is not here anymore, why is that, is it to do with lack of land, or lack or workers to put the match on, either way it not on anymore,
as @Tonym says, its not easy to get good land, and if you cancel the match, an other club will move to your date next year,
as many will know there is a lot of work going into putting a match on, all for little money in return,
if a club put a match on, and you think its on very bad land, then dont expect the match runners to cancel it, just cancel it yourself, and dont enter or go,no one is holding a gun to your head to go, its a free choice, if you want to upset the match runners, then your could tell them your not going because of the bad land,
and there is a man i know, that entered a couple of matches this year, got there and did not plough as the conditions did not suit him, that was his choice,

on the other side, you could have a very big field cut short stubble and baled, very shallow tramlines, no stones, free entry, good food free at dinner time, match runners pop round in afternoon with a small drink of Cider for all the ploughmen, along with good prize money, yet there would be some that would still find something to complain about, like the sun was in their eyes on the opening split,
there is no pleasing some of them, just either get on with it, or dont enter, it is really as simple as that

 

[Ley253]

Harry you said you were involved with putting a match on years ago, but the club is not here anymore, why is that, is it to do with lack of land, or lack or workers to put the match on, either way it not on anymore,
as @Tonym says, its not easy to get good land, and if you cancel the match, an other club will move to your date next year,
as many will know there is a lot of work going into putting a match on, all for little money in return,
if a club put a match on, and you think its on very bad land, then dont expect the match runners to cancel it, just cancel it yourself, and dont enter or go,no one is holding a gun to your head to go, its a free choice, if you want to upset the match runners, then your could tell them your not going because of the bad land,
and there is a man i know, that entered a couple of matches this year, got there and did not plough as the conditions did not suit him, that was his choice,

on the other side, you could have a very big field cut short stubble and baled, very shallow tramlines, no stones, free entry, good food free at dinner time, match runners pop round in afternoon with a small drink of Cider for all the ploughmen, along with good prize money, yet there would be some that would still find something to complain about, like the sun was in their eyes on the opening split,
there is no pleasing some of them, just either get on with it, or dont enter, it is really as simple as that

The Cotswold vintage ploughing society died due to people moving from the area and the committee being taken over by non ploughmen. who then lost interest, it ended up as a one man band. We usually found a reasonable site, and always finished it to leave the landowner a tidy area, with no unploughed plots or centre headlands.
The outside competitor at the 3 Fs did not know the site was so bad, and do you really think the organisers would have told him, if he had asked?
I dont see much date thieving going on for a society to pinch a date, they would have to move from their own usual date, there is nothing to be gained, unless they are new kids on the block.

 

[Ley253]

I have just watched a video of the above mentioned match, and I strongly recommend that everyone watches it! In truth, all the competitors should get their entry fee returned, the site was that bad, and no one will convince me that the likelihood of the conditions was not known to the organisers. The vid is on youtube, "fff& b ploughing match 2017, its in three sections."

 

[wuddy]

We once held two ploughing matches in the same field with soil like that one at the end of September, bone dry and hard could do nothing with it boards just wanted to push it rather than turn it. Went back four weeks later and it ploughed perfectly and I won the overall! So maybe the organisers seen the field ploughed in November and it looked fine but just to dry in September!

 

[Ley253]

We once held two ploughing matches in the same field with soil like that one at the end of September, bone dry and hard could do nothing with it boards just wanted to push it rather than turn it. Went back four weeks later and it ploughed perfectly and I won the overall! So maybe the organisers seen the field ploughed in November and it looked fine but just to dry in September!

The wetter that ground gets the more like glue it becomes! The amount sticking to the front tractor tyres in the world style class gives you an idea.

 

[MrNoo]

The wetter that ground gets the more like glue it becomes! The amount sticking to the front tractor tyres in the world style class gives you an idea.

When it sticks to the discs and landslides, it's best to just go home. We just went to the bar instead!