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Ad Rates / Articles / Classified Ads / Editorial / Home / Links / Showtime   Horse-drawn plows are pulling their weight    List Ray Yurkowski Next   Plowing with horses makes a comeback at Ontario farm   By Ray Yurkowski What’s old is becoming new again at the farm of Kim and Jeanne Hadwen.   The farmer who has the time to work his fields with horses is a rare breed these days as our fast-paced world demands high performance. So says conventional wisdom.   But this spring, Kim started working with an eight-horse team and discovered it took four hours to seed a 12-acre field. The same field took only an hour less with a tractor. And, he added, with his team of Belgians, the work was done without a rest and he didn't use a drop of fuel.   “With eight horses, you don't have to rest as much,” he says. “Because they're not being overworked.”   The couple operates Merryville Farms, north of Belleville, mainly raising beef cattle and if things work out the way they plan, they'll soon be selling off the family tractor.   The Hadwens call it “back to the future farming” and the hope is to eventually plow, seed and harvest 50 acres using the ultimate in green technology and genuine horsepower.   Kim sees another benefit every day with the horses in tow. He doesn't have to wait to pull onto the roadway. Traffic will stop to let him through.   “They’ll all let me go,” he says with a grin. “Because they want to see the horses.”   The Hadwens also serve as co-chairs for the horse-drawn plowing event at this year’s Hastings Plowing Match and Farm Show.   Is horse-drawn plowing becoming a lost art?   “It’s on an upward swing,” says Kim. “There’s not a lot of older people around that have the skills and know what they're doing, so we've got to have younger guys that’ll be there down the road so they can teach other people.”   There is no clock at a horse-drawn plowing contest. A single plowman uses traditional farm equipment to plow the straightest, most consistent furrow over an area 25 feet wide by 50 or 60 feet long. The competition is a glimpse to the skills of the past as well as a means of preserving the breeds of draft horses that have worked Ontario fields for more than a century.   But it's not all about straight lines.   Kim says judges look for details such as consistency and depth of the furrow.   “When plowing with a team of horses, the opening or crown furrow is the most difficult.”   “Plowing is a fine art,” he adds. “And horse-drawn plowing isn't just an art with the plow, it's the horses too. They've got to know what they're doing and they've got to go slow. If you don't have a good team of horses, you'll get nowhere.”   It is believed that competitive plowing began in Scotland, where soon after a farmer took up a new residence, his neighbours would plow his land. After the work was done, the farmers would scrutinize each others 'lanes' and a prize was awarded to the best plowman. The world of the plowing contest was born.   What started in Canada in 1819, featuring only a handful of events for the farmers of Nova Scotia, has grown in popularity through the years and competition was keen among the pioneers.   According to the Ontario Plowmen’s Association (OPA), the first provincial agricultural exhibition, held in 1846 at a Toronto farm on Yonge St. in the vicinity of St. Clair Ave., featured a plowing match.   The Pembroke Observer advertised a "Ploughing Match” on Oct. 9, 1868 for a North Renfrew Agricultural Society event to be held 11 days later at a Front Westmeath farm. The first class event winner would be awarded the princely sum of $9, second $7, third $5 and fourth $3. Similar prizes were offered in other classes of competition open to boys under the age of 20.   By 1910, interest declined in competitive plowing and less than a dozen local matches were held in Ontario.   In the early 1980s, plowing matches included tractors as well as horse-drawn competitions.   As testament to a renaissance of the art, this year there are 49 county-level competitions under the auspices of the OPA, host of the International Plowing Match to be held Sept. 22-26 in the District of Temiskaming.   One of the county events, the annual in the horse, antique tractor or regular tractor plowing classes. Last year, almost 20,000 people attended the show.   It's important to keep the traditions of the past says show committee president, Steve Elsey.   A team of researchers from the Ross Museum, located at Foresters Falls, Ontario, documented the history of plows in the province, a year-long project now posted online at the Virtual Museum of Canada (www. virtualmuseum.ca)   “Plowing a Furrow to Victory” tells the story of local hero, Harris S. Brown, a grandson of early settlers at Westmeath Township. In 1896 and 1900, Brown won two major plowing matches and his Fleury #53 Scotch Thistle plow stands among the exhibits at the museum.   There were several different types of plows made and patented in Eastern Ontario from the mid 1800s. Joseph Fleury’s cast iron plow beams proved to be more durable and maneuverable than the wood-beamed imported European plows more commonly found on early Canadian farms.   Fluery started out as a blacksmith in 1859 at Machell's Corner (now Aurora), Ontario, and through the 1860s and most of the 1870s, developed 22 different models of single-furrow walking plows as well as other field implements and various home, farm and forest machinery.   During the Aurora Agricultural Works’ first 50 years, Fleury and company turned out more than 100,000 plows - at a pace of 40 a week - that were sold throughout Canada as well as exported to the United States and other countries around the world.   In 1844, Daniel Massey turned over management of his Grafton area farm to his son so he could devote time working on automated equipment to make farming easier. Massey worked on projects in a small workshop he built on the farm to repair implements and three years later, opened his own agricultural implement company in Newcastle, Ontario, the forerunner of multinational manufacturing giant Massey Ferguson.   Ross Museum research also uneathed another fact to dispel some of the widely held images of life on the 19th century farm.   “Today we think of horses as the primary power source on the pioneer farm,” says museum past-president, Lawrie Barton. “However, the 1851 Westmeath Township census recorded 2,358 oxen and 1,232 horses.   “Oxen were stronger than the average draft horse,” she added. “They were more hardy, easier to maintain, and could pull plows, harrows and wagons.”   Photos 1 - Kim Hadwen hopes to work his land using a team of Belgian horse   2 - Taylor Reid, 15, a new generation of horse-drawn plowers   3 - Oliver chilled steel plow cira 1880   After more than 30 years in the world of industry, it was time to follow a dream. The path to making a living as a journalist/photographer started in Stettler, Alberta and wound its way through Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Glanbrook and Caledonia. After landing work in the Brighton area, it took his wife Cheryl exactly one day to sell their home in Hamilton and they now live very close to Presqu’ile Park. Ray has contributed to Watershed magazine as well as Community Press and the Shield newspapers   Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2010 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster