• When did you arrive in Prague?
On Monday, August 11.
• The two days of competition starts on September 5, what are you and other Kiwi reversible class competitor Bob Mehrtens, of Timaru, doing between now and then?
We have our tractors out of the container and both tractors fired straight up and everything is as we put them away, which is awesome. It always plays on your mind what they could be like when they have been in a container for a year, especially through a cold winter but they were perfect. We have shifted the tractors to the marshalling yard and we’ve been trying to find some practice ground. We found some farmers getting ready for harvest and had a bit of a broken yarn with them and they’ve agreed to give us some ground, so we’ll get some ploughs in and see what this Czech soil turns over like.
• What type of soil are you expecting?
Apparently, all soil types are very similar around here so it will be interesting to see once we have the ploughs in the ground how much variation there is. It has been very dry over here. They had a bit of rain a couple of weeks ago but the ground seems very hard at the moment so it’ll be interesting to see what it is like once we get into it.
• What sort of crops are you expecting to plough?
We were driving around yesterday being nosey and we found an official site and it looks like nice short, wheat stubble and there doesn’t look to be a lot of trash and we are expecting the grassland to be nice pasture but it depends on what the weather is like. At a world champs in Prague in 2005, they had 100mm of rain the night before and it changes the whole competition, just like that.
• Are you running the same setup as when you represented New Zealand in the world champs in Estonia last year, a 1993 Massey Ferguson 362 and a 1994 Kverneland plough?
That’s the one and Bob has a Ford 7740 tractor and plough.
• Where was your container housing your tractors?
Prague University. It was great to have the gear out of the container and to be back on my own tractor. I need to familiarise myself with it but it’ll come back to me.
• Do you know how many countries you’ll be competing against?
I heard 26 countries are competing this year.
• Who is the country to beat?
The Irish are reigning champions at the moment but you are competing against the best from across the world so there is stiff competition and everyone here has the same goal.
• This is the third world championships you’ve competed in. Where are you hoping to finish?
I want to do better than last year, where I finished 15th or 16th.
• Will you be doing anything differently this year?
We have made some modifications to the ploughs and I learned a bit from last year, the different style of judging at the worlds compared to the nationals, so I’ll plough to what the judges are looking for.
• Who is in your entourage?
Bob, myself and coach Malcolm Taylor, of Putāruru, Sonia my wife is our manager and my daughter for support.
• Have you visited Prague before?
Very briefly on a Topdeck Tour in 2007, so we’ll get to see a bit more of the countryside this time.
• Will you be using any of your time there to campaign to get people to attend the world champs in Southland in 2029?
Definitely. We’ll be talking to people to get them thinking about it because it is a long way to travel and requires a lot of organisation to get gear over. It is not a cheap exercise shipping tractors around and having a month off work and I’m grateful for my list of sponsors including AGCO, JJ Ltd in Gore and Herberts Transport in Edendale.
• You’ve been missing out on some hard frosts in the South. What is the weather like over there?
It’s 30°C, it is 8am here and it is already 20°C
