WHAT A JUDGE IS LOOKING FOR

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30803, 15 July 1965, Page 19

WHAT A JUDGE IS LOOKING FOR

There will be five whitecoated judges reviewing the work of each of the ploughmen taking part in the New Zealand championship match at Chertsey on Saturday. Among them will be a Canterbury man, Mr D. J. Stewart, of Rosebank, Rakaia, who apart from being a successful ploughman himself a few years ago is well known as one of the province’s most successful producers of sheep for the butchers’ trade.

What will the judges be looking for when they look over the ploughing on Saturday? For the benefit of spectators who will not all be conversant with the intricacies of match plough-

ing this was put to Mr Stewart this week and here is what be said:

“I will be looking for a furrow well turned so as no grass is showing and at the same time to have a good top of soil available for a seed bed with no holes or breaks. The furrows must be packed tightly together for firmness. The opening split should be clean and the crown must match the rest of the ploughing. The finish should be narrow and not to deep. The ploughing of the whole plot should be straight and uniform."

Mr Stewart began match ploughing with horses in 1934 and after a year with the horses turned to tractor ploughing in 1935. In 1937 he began to range beyond the confines of the immediate district and until the

war ploughed in matches on the Canterbury circuit from Rangiora to Papakaio.

Looking back Mr Stewart regards as one of his most successful days with the plough a match at Timaru in which he beat all comers when ploughing with a three-furrow plough in a class of about 14 or 15 competitors using, two, three and four-furrow ploughs.

Soon after the New Zealand championship series of matches began in 1956 Mr Stewart began judging qualifying rounds and he has been adjudicating at matches for about the last eight years. He has judged once before at a New Zealand championship final. That was at Rotorua in 1963. He was also a reserve judge for the final near Invercargill in 1962.