It’s all about precision

Each time I go to a ploughing match I learn a little more about what the competitors are up to.

This time I learnt about “the crown” which apparently refers to the first two opposing furrows down the centre of the marked out area and how there should be no gap between them.

How the drivers manage to keep the tractors (or the horses) going in a straight line always struck me as a skill in itself. (I have enough trouble keeping our lawn mower going straight to produce lines – and our lawn is pretty flat). The areas that these gents and ladies tackle is usually anything but flat. I also gather that there mustn’t be any rubbish on the surface when they finish – like weeds or solid obstacles or lumps of grass.

My colleague who was also photographing this event was surprised when one of the competitors produced a steel ruler in order to measure the depth of a furrow! That’s precision.

At the end of the day you have to admit that the people who do it are incredibly skilful and are perpetuating ancient countryside skills, which of course could be lost with the advent of modern machinery. I watch agricultural machinery drivers who these days sit in their cabs and allow the actual driving bit to be done by a computer.

They of course weren’t about at the ploughing match I visited and I found it refreshing to noticed that those taking part in the competition, were of all sorts of ages – young blokes as well some that had clearly been doing it for years.

A great day out and I commend the events of the Norfolk Ploughing Society to my reader(s).

My thanks to those who let me in and who treated all my daft questions with carefully explained answers. By the way the bacon butties are also really good.

TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES TAKEN AT THIS EVENT CLICK HERE