When travelling back from our vacation in Estonia, we happened to sit next to a Norwegian chap who was going to world championships in ploughing. We had never heard of it, so we asked tons of questions and since the event was happening just 1 hour drive from Calgary, we decided to go and see it for ourselves.

It turns out the the World Ploughing organisation was founded exactly 60 years ago in Cumberland, England and that there are World Championships every year in a different country: last year in New Zealand, this year Canada, next year France (Bordeaux region) and after that in Denmark. The first ever was held in Ontario, Canada and since then they have been held every year. Also turns out that the first ploughing competition in Estonia was held in 1874, August 10th and since 1964 the local championships have been held every year, Estonia started participating in the World championships in 1989. There is also a fan club that travels with the competitors and cheers them on – just like any other sports. Another interesting fact is that the Estonian agricultural college Olustvere where the local championships are held is celebrating its 100th anniversary also this year as the host of this year’s World Plowing championship Olds College in Alberta.

We also invited the Estonian couple who lives here in Calgary to come and visit the World Plow 2013 and they gladly joined us and even did the driving. Because of the traffic jam on the way – roads are being repaired everywhere in the summer, we arrived in one and a half hours instead of one. We only missed the beginning ceremony and were there by the time the first furrow’s were already drawn – some straight and some not so very. The weather was beautiful – 25C and sunshine. We had applied sunscreen in the morning and sprayed ourselves against the mosquitoes and other insects lavishly, so we could stroll around and take in the surroundings.

The competition has begun

The site was very large – there were a few shuttles – tractors pulling a wagon, that moved people from parking lot to the entrance and then from the main gate to the

The new favourite ride

competition fields. There were also lots of farm vehicles on display – tractors of all sizes, combines and some machines that I’d never seen. My husband was very excited about the large machinery and kept looking at which one would he like to drive given a chance. I enjoyed looking at the vintage tractors and combines – there were many different ones – oil engines, steam engines and no engines – from the times when just horses were used. I recognised a rake drawn by horses that my grandparents used at their farm when I was a child.

We walked around between the competition patches – each country had their flag up high where the country representative was competing. We ended up by the Estonian competitor who had his wife and a large fan club there. It was a lot of fun for us to meet Estonian competitors and for them to meet Estonians in Alberta. One Estonian was also a judge at the match and he explained to us what they are looking at when judging who is a winner. There are 7 categories that are judged – straightness and depth of the furrow, clean crown (no grass seen) etc. Every category has different judges to make sure that the result is as objective as possible. Each country had 2 representatives – one was using reversible plough and the other conventional. These categories were judged separately and each had a winner.

Lunch was catered at a large tent near the main entrance. The meat and sausages were grilled right there in front of you and even huge beef briskets were barbecued in a trailer. The line to the food was efficient and once you sat down you could enjoy different bands playing. The music was – not hard to guess – bluegrass and country. All kinds of drinks were served, we settled with local beer and soft drinks. Food was very tasty – probably also because we had been in the fresh air for the whole day and were hungry like wolves. My husband had a hot dog and a hamburger – talking about huge appetites.

Beef barbecue

The competition lasted from 11am to 2pm and then in an hour there was the flag lowering ceremony. We had fun trying to figure out the different flags that were up – we did quite well, but got stuck in trying to figure out the Macedonia’s and Kosovo’s.  The judges were still working on measuring everyone’s work and the results were announced at 8pm and the finishing gala dinner followed. We headed home – it had been a long day in the sun walking around the fields and us city folks were quite tired by the end of it. We never met the Norwegian chap again who had invited us, but were very thankful for his invitation. We had also learned a lot of new things and met new people – all in all was a great day.

The Estonian team and fan club