Octogenarian Colin Cross took to the field recently in the Mid Canterbury Vintage Machinery Club ploughing match at Rob Butterick’s Farm, at Wakanui.
He was in the vintage open class, riding a Ferguson TEA tractor, which he has owned for 12 years.
Mr Cross (84), of Ashburton, is a retired grader driver and farm worker, who spent his adult life living in Mid Canterbury.
He worked alongside his father, and then his brother, on the family farm at Winchmore before securing a job in his early 40s as grader driver with the Ashburton County Council.
It was 1978 and a time when five grader drivers were employed to cover specific areas of the district. Mr Cross covered 180km of rural roading from Wakanui to Rakaia River Mouth and inland to Lauriston-Barrhill.
He had five different licences to his name: heavy trade, heavy wheels and roller, trailer, motor vehicle and motorcycle, and was still there when the council’s name changed to Ashburton District Council and then the graders became a part of Ashburton Contracting Ltd.
He retired in 1998, after 20 years on the job.
Mr Cross, a member of the Mid Canterbury Vintage Machinery Club, did not take up ploughing competitively until about 2010 and enjoys keeping his hand in with the machinery.
The best performance he had achieved in past ploughing matches was a third placing, but he was ever hopeful and enjoyed the social aspect of the match events which harked back to his rural roots.
Also at the match was Kirwee farmer Ashley Seaton, who was one of two ploughmen to go up against national reversible champion Bob Mehrtens at the event. Mr Seaton lost the national final to Mr Mehrtens by half a point.
Mr Seaton (37) is a member of the Courtenay-Paparua Ploughing Association.
He has been ploughing since 2006, when he turned 21. He got a brand new Massey Ferguson tractor, half-funded by an uncle, for his 21st birthday present; he paid for the other half.
It is used for farm work, too, he said.
Mr Seaton, married to Anna, is a fifth-generation farmer at Kirwee. He, along with his brother, Warwick (also a ploughman at the event), and his mother, Leslie, farm the 760ha beef, sheep and crop property.
Ploughing matches allowed him time off farm, competing, and socialising, with others who had similar interests, and necessitated nationwide travel.
The weekend before heading to Wakanui, east of Ashburton, Mr Seaton was in Blenheim competing.
He would, one day, he said, like to take the national title and attend a world plough event, so was chipping away at perfecting his craft.
Getting the first cut straight was half the battle, he said.
●Results from the Mid Canterbury Vintage Machinery Club ploughing match at Rob Butterick’s Farm, at Wakanui were: Silver Plough: 1st Ashley Seaton, 2nd Bob Mehrtens, 3rd Simon Reed; Vintage Qualifying: 1st Colin Boon, 2nd Pearce Watson, 3rd Robert Weavers; Vintage open: 1st John Stalker, 2nd Bruce Graham, 3rd Cliff Begg; Horses: 1st John & Sharon Chynoweth, 2nd John Booth.
