Contestants vying for two spots to compete at the 2020 world champs in Russia made the competition closely contested.
South Canterbury truck driver Bob Mehrtens ploughed his way to compete at his fourth world championships.
Ploughing at his 41st national championship event in the reversible class Mehrtens finished the two days with a combined score of 406.5 points to head off Courtenay farmer Ashley Seaton, second, on 388.5 points while dairy farmer Malcolm Taylor from Putaruru came in third on a score of 376.
Mehrtens last year earned himself a plot at the 2019 world championships and heads away to represent NZ in Minnesota later this year.
When he heads to Russia next year it will be his fourth world championship start having previously competed in Kenya and Germany.
It was a more closely ploughed battle in the bigger 15-stong field contesting the conventional class for the prestigious Silver Plough.
It ended two out of three for the Southlanders with Clinton farmer Scott McKenzie emerging the winner when he stacked up a creditable 360.5 points ahead of Kelvin Stokes, a farmer from Taupiri, Waikato, on 355 and fellow Southlander, Riversdale farmer Mark Dillon who finished third with 335.5 points.
McKenzie was contesting his 14th national championship, Stokes his 31st and Dillon his 17th.
McKenzie earned himself the prestigious Silver Plough Trophy and the chance to contest the world championships in Russia next year.
The Silver Plough was first contested in 1956 following the formation of the World Ploughing Organisation in 1952.
For NZ to send competitors overseas to compete the time had come to formalise and in October 1956 a meeting was held in Oamaru to discuss the establishment of the National Ploughing Association.
The first championships and Silver Plough contest were held at Papakaio, North Otago, that year.
Ten enthusiasts competed in the vintage ploughing championship which saw just seven points separating the top four placegetters.
Paul Houghton a mechanic from Hamilton took out the national title on 341 points ahead of retired farmers Pearce Watson, Ashburton, on 337 and John Stalker, Lincoln, on 335. Mosgiel builder Murray Grainger finished fourth just one point behind on 334.
Methven farmer and contractor Matt Ridge was the winner of the inaugural contemporary ploughing title that organisers said was successful in bringing new, young blood into the game.
Ridge took out the stubble ploughing section and finished second in the grass ploughing while Jess Cunliffe, an agriculture student from Ashburton, won the grass section and was second in the stubble ploughing to finish runner-up ahead of third placegetter Paul Kowalewski, a student from Waimahaka in Southland.
The horse ploughing championship was won by seasoned competitors, Oxford couple Sharon and John Chynoweth.
Organisers said the conditions were some of the best in the country with the Chertsey soils on the Wilkinson family property turning over superbly as the country’s top ploughers produced a fantastic spectacle for the hundreds of spectators.
A drawcard for the public at the end of ploughing each day was a grass to barley attempt by some of the biggest and most modern machinery in NZ.
Three massive tractors each pulling 12 furrow ploughs were joined by a quad tractor towing a large set of discs and another that drilled the barley.
It is understood the attempt was comfortably inside the one hour target set.
Ploughing championships commentator Craig Wiggins totalled up the cost of the machinery as it worked to cultivate and plough to prepare the four-hectare seed bed and drill it in winter barley.
“I tell you what, there’s gazillions of dollars at work out there, the most you’ll likely ever see in one four-hectare patch ever in this country,” Wiggins said.
