Ploughs And Plough Experts Bound For N.Z.

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31333, 1 April 1967, Page 9

Ploughs And Plough Experts Bound For N.Z.

About 40 ploughs are coming to New Zealand for use of competitors in the world ploughing contest which will be held in the Prebbleton-Broadfield district next month.

On the basis of inquiries made this week 38 ploughs and a tractor are now on the way to New Zealand and will be arriving by four ships due in Lyttelton this month. It is expected that another two ploughs may also be coming from India. Some plough manufacturers are also sending representatives to New Zealand to help users of their implements. Mr F. W. Brandt, marketing manager for Ransomes, Sims and Jeffries, Ltd., in the South Pacific, said this week that since the start of world ploughing contests representatives of their parent company in England had been sent to the contests wherever they were held. As a result of being present at every contest these representatives had accumulated a wide experience of ploughing conditions in every part of the world and also knowledge of the type of ploughing that judges were looking for. Mr J. Gass, of their company, was known, to every ploughman that had gone overseas from New Zealand to worid contests, but he was unfortunately indisposed and would not be coming to New Zealand. The two representatives of the company who would form the technical service team for competitors using their ploughs at this year’s world contest would be Messrs F. Knox and J. Burne, who will arrive in this country at the end of the month. Mr Knox is the company's representative for the north of England, and before joining Ransomes as a technical representative in 1935, was farming in Yorkshire, and between 1925 and 1929 won 15 first prizes in ploughing competitions. While he is in New Zealand Mr Knox, who will be accompanied by his wife, will visit a son who came to this

country 10 years ago and is now dairy farming at Waihi. Mr Burne joined Ransomes in 1949 from Ireland after a period of farming and working as a tillage contractor. He won several local ploughing championships in Ireland and while he has been with the firm he has been three times champion in the reversible plough class at the British Ploughing Association’s championships and twice runner-up in five successive years. He is an expert on ploughs and all tillage equipment and a large part of his time is spent in the final testing of prototype equipment before it is released for production. His work has taken him to Persia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the Sudan, Rhodesia, Zambia, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Austria and Norway as well as many parts of the British Isles. Mr Brandt said that he be-

lieved that the company had first become interested in ploughs as far back as 1803 when • patent had been taken out for the chilled cast iron plough share. He thought that their first plough may have come to this country “before the first four ships,” having been brought out by a missionary. Seven of the competitors in next month’s match would be using ploughs made by the company and 10 ploughs were being brought out altogether. Among these competitors would be T. A. Goodwin, who had won many contests in the United Kingdom, and the Barr brothers from Northern Ireland who are brothers of Hugh Barr, who was world champion three times. A New Zealand competitor, I. B. Blair, of Outram, Otago, would also be using one of their ploughs. He had had a new plough since about Christmas time. One of these ploughs had also been lent to a young Canterbury ploughman. Mr Brandt said that the new plough made by his company which would be used at the world contest had been used in qualifying events in the northern hemisphere in the most recent season. It was a type of plough that could be used in a ploughing contest and also by the ordinary farmer for his farm ploughing. A feature of their ploughs in the world contest next month would be a new mould board which would be seen in contest ploughing for the first time. It was the result of five years of research by the company and it was thought that this might have more application in New Zealand than in other countries. It would enable ploughing to be done in harder conditions faster than had been possible before. t

In the development of this sort of equipment the company has conducted many trials and experiments using strain gauges fixed at strategic points on the body to deter-

mine stresses during actual ploughing. Each strain gauge consists basically of a fine wire of known electrical resistance. With varying strains the thickness of the wire is altered and thus its electrical resistance which is measured and recorded. From these measurements the designers can learn the exact areas of greatest and lowest stress and hence how to conuteract them. After the contest the Ransomes technical service team will give two demonstrations in the South Island at Waimate and Gore and two in the North Island. These will be especially for members of Young Farmers* Clubs and young ploughmen in the hope that more young ploughmen may gain .the confidence to eome forward and take part in qualifying events for the national championships. Some 22 of the ploughs coming from overseas are from Norway and 20 of these are Kvernelands ploughs. If is understood that as many as 12 or 15 competitors may be using these ploughs. A representative of this company is also due tn Christchurch early next month.

Apart from the ploughs coming from England and Norway already mentioned, five ploughs are also on their way from Finland, three ploughs from Germany and a tractor from Hungary.