Underwood Farms a great host for 98th Huron County Plowing Match
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
On Aug. 21, the Underwood family handily hosted the 98th Huron County Plowing Match (HCPM) at their vast and charming farm in Morris-Turnberry.
Now, there are certainly easier ways to spend a Friday than trying to convince a stretch of soil to do exactly what you want, especially when said soil hasn’t seen a drop of rain for days. But the record number of competitors that came out to turn dirt on the rocky, rolling hills of Turnberry Township don’t plow because it’s easy.
Against a backdrop of blue sky punctuated by a red barn, the fields became a rainbow of tractors of all makes, models and eras. Each driver was a solitary figure, engaged in their own private battle of wills with the earth. From a distance, the machinery and the coloured clothing of the competitors created a scene that was as much spectacle as sport. Up close, however, the concentration was unmistakable. Straightness mattered. Depth mattered. Uniformity mattered. Every furrow told a story.
As modern tractors worked their way across the hills, horse-drawn competitors offered a reminder of just how much has changed since the early days of agriculture in Huron County.
The host farm was transformed into a temporary gathering place for people from across the county and beyond. Competitors and spectators, volunteers and organizers mingled in the moments between the action. There was so much happening that it was easy, for a moment, to forget that the entire event was taking place at somebody’s home farm.
Huron County Warden and Morris-Turnberry Mayor Jamie Heffer was pleased as punch to be co-hosting the match on his home turf. He officially welcomed visitors gathered inside the Underwoods’ drive shed/temporary banquet hall by addressing a famously vexing local issue. “I don’t know if you would believe this or not, but there were some complaining of stones here in Turnberry,” Heffer joked. “If you don’t need both hands to pick it up, it doesn’t qualify as a stone.”
Competitive plowing has always been an exercise in understanding the ground beneath your feet. The tools have changed dramatically. The horsepower has increased. The equipment has become more sophisticated. But the basic challenge remains wonderfully stubborn: take a field, take a plow and make the soil behave. That challenge has endured through nearly a century of Huron County plowing matches.
The match is now only two years away from a milestone of its own - in 2028, the Huron County Plowmen’s Association (HCPA) will hold its 100th match.
A plowing match may be built around competition, but nobody should underestimate the importance of eating. At this year’s HCPM, the responsibility of the morning meal fell to the Belmore Maple Syrup Festival Committee, a group with more than half a century of experience feeding large crowds and raising money for its community. They brought the pancakes. They brought the sausage. And, of course, they brought maple syrup.
And while breakfast got the day started, the unofficial closing act belonged to the traditional Cardiff’s Catering beef banquet, which is quite frankly one of the best meals of the whole year, every year.
Over 98 years, the event has changed in ways its earliest organizers could never have imagined. The tractors are more powerful. Agricultural practices have evolved. The people attending the match can now learn about everything from new equipment and technology to the latest agricultural practices.
While all three Queen of the Furrow hopefuls did well, it was Emma Robinson who emerged victorious, edging out fellow competitors Queenie Pentland and Katelyn Wynja to earn the crown and take on one of the HCPM’s most visible ambassadorial roles.
The same is true for the latest winner of the Princess competition, Lily Van Dieten, who began her reign by doing something that is becoming increasingly rare in public life: giving an audience exactly what it did not know it needed - a speech about cows. And by all accounts, it was excellent.
By the time the HCPM reaches its 100th milestone match in 2028, past-president of the HCPA Steve Hallahan hopes to have captured the memory of every HCPM, past and present, in a commemorative book. With the 98th match now complete, the centennial is fast approaching. A committee has been struck to gather stories, photographs and memories for a history book to mark the occasion.
Hallahan announced at the match that, while the association has access to meeting minutes, 4-H material, newspaper archives and resources from the Huron County Museum and other historical organizations, those official records are just not enough.
What Hallahan really wants are the family stories. The memories that never made the minutes. The photograph tucked into a drawer. The story about a grandfather’s first tractor. A parent who spent decades competing. The family that showed up every year, rain or shine. The details that might seem small to the people who lived them, but become irreplaceable once nobody is left to tell them.
The HCPA is putting out the call for people to contribute approximately 800-word stories along with digital photographs, with the hope of gathering as much material as possible by Christmas so that the committee has the following year to edit and assemble the book. The goal is to have it ready for the 100th HCPM in 2028.
The HCPM has survived for nearly a century because people keep showing up to take their turn at the furrow. Now, as the 100th match approaches, the association is asking them to take another turn - but this time, at telling a story.