Gracie Hoggarth ready to reign as 2025 Huron County Queen of the Furrow

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

When this year’s Queen of the Furrow (QotF) winner, Gracie Hoggarth, arrived at the King’s Pearl Pub in Tiverton for a post-match interview with The Citizen, she’d just finished a long day of work for Hydro One, where she’d been grounding 500,000-volt wires in the pouring rain for Bruce Power. The Clinton native needed nothing more than a hot chocolate to warm up before she was ready to make a quick pivot into Regal Mode.

 

If Hoggarth approaches her year as Queen with the same sure-footed determination she brings to her career as an electrician, Huron County is in good hands. Even though she only finished high school in 2023, Hoggarth is already certain that the job she has now is the one for her. “Early on in high school, I knew that I wanted to do something in the trades, but I wasn’t sure what trade yet,” she recalled. “I’m not one that can just sit behind a desk all day for eight hours; I’m a super hands-on learner. But then, in the trades, it’s all hands-on learning! You’re being taught by being shown, and by doing, instead of just being expected to retain the knowledge from a lecture. Now that I’m at Hydro One, I’ll be there forever. I don’t see myself leaving.”

 

Hoggarth may be a bit biased, but she thinks the 2025 Huron County Plowing Match was a huge success. “I loved it! It was amazing, and there was a really good turnout, which was awesome. It was nice that all the other queens from other counties showed up too.” 

 

She also came away inspired by each one of her fellow QotF contestants. “A lot of kindness, the other contestants are super kind. Queenie and Brooklyn and Emmy, they're all lovely girls. I definitely learned so much about agriculture from them - especially from Emmy! Her family are huge farmers - they have chickens, and pigs, and lots of land - it’s just nice listening to her talk.”
This was the second time Hoggarth has competed for Huron County’s top plow crown. “I was more confident this year - that’s for sure. Especially in my plowing abilities,” she explained. “It was my first time ever plowing! This year, I did a little bit of practice beforehand, and that helped.” 

 

Hoggarth’s speech about the lack of agricultural content in Canada’s education curriculum was a big hit with this year's judges.“I did have a bit of a tough time thinking, but I wanted to write about something that stood out to me,” she explained. “My mom is an educational assistant, and we were discussing topics, and there’s really just this big space that needs to be filled for agriculture in elementary schools - kids should not have to go without learning where their food comes from.”

 

She’s already prepping for the plowing portion of the Ontario QotF competition by working on potential speech topics and putting in extra practice time with her plow coach, Dugald McIntosh. “Having a good plow coach goes a really, really long way,” she told The Citizen. “And he’s amazing! He lets you figure out things on your own, and is also very understanding, and good with working with people that have no prior experience. He’s very patient.”

 

Hoggarth wants potential future contestants to know they shouldn’t be intimidated if they aren’t fourth-generation farmers. “I’m not really as deep in the agricultural community like other girls are, per se. My mom came from a dairy farm, but they sold that off when she was 16. And I used to work at Steve Hallahan’s dairy farm - he has his robots, but I would feed the calves, and push cows through the milker… you have a cane and you tap the ones that you want, and try and get them into this little gate that goes right to the milker. But I definitely have an interest in agriculture, and I care and I want to learn more.”

 

Although Hoggarth is not a farmer herself, she already knows how she wants to use her reign to support agriculture. “The big thing that I want to do is get more queens to try out - this year, two days before the due date, we only had two queens signed up to compete. There ended up being four of us, but two were last-minute - it would be nice if we could have like a lot more queens show up and try out for it.” 

 

Hoggarth believes the Queen competition can push rural women to develop valuable life skills and make real connections. “I think it’s important to have someone in that role that’s young and passionate and wants to spread the knowledge,” she pointed out. “Recruiting other women into agriculture is always amazing. That’s something I’d like to focus on a lot this year. These are real life skills that you’re going to use for the rest of your life. The more you do interviews, the better you get at them, and everyone, once in a while, is going to have to give an impromptu speech - whether it’s at a wedding or at work. And it just grows your confidence.”

 

She’s not wasting any time on the Queen recruitment front, either. “I’ve already started a list of girls I’m thinking about messaging,” she confided. “I know there are quite a few girls from Huron County that probably don’t even know that this is a thing, right? So I’m just going to be messaging a lot of girls, going to all the community events, and talking about the Queen competition with a lot of people.”

 

Her recruitment pitch is simple, but compelling. “Just take a shot at it,” Hoggarth advises. “No matter what, you’re going to gain some really good friends out of it, and a good sense of community. You’re going to meet some new, really interesting people, learn some really good skills that you’ll use the rest of your life. And it’s okay to step out of your comfort zone. Even if you are nervous - there’s going to be five girls there to be able to hold your hand and you’ll get through it.”