2025 NZ Ploughing Championships: Southland farmer Mark Dillon wins big

Mark Dillon will represent New Zealand in Croatia for the 2026 World Ploughing Championships. Photo / NZ Ploughing Association

The 2025 New Zealand Ploughing Championships were held over the weekend in Middlemarch, with Southland farmer Mark Dillon taking out the conventional silver plough title.

The Riversdale cropping farmer is no stranger to victory, as it was his fourth win in the conventional section at the championships.

Dillon’s success means he is also well-travelled, as his 2023 win took him to Estonia in August last year to represent New Zealand at the World Ploughing Championships.

He also won in 2024, resulting in a trip to the world champs in Prague in September of this year.

Now, the weekend’s victory means he’s off to Croatia next year for the 2026 world event.

Dillon is not the only one who has to travel a lot; his tractor and plough also have to make the journey overseas.

This is a massive undertaking that includes cleaning every inch of the machinery to appease biosecurity rules.

It also has to be left overseas, as it takes too much time and expense to ship there and back, not to mention the cleaning.

So his tractor and plough were shipped to Estonia last year and then sent to Prague, he told The Country’s Jamie Mackay.

“The gear’s sitting at Prague University in Czech Republic waiting for us to get over there in August, when we’ll be over there practising for the competition in early September.”

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After this, it will be off to Croatia for the 2026 competition.

As for the weekend, Dillon said conditions at the competition were a mixed bag in Middlemarch.

“The stuff we ploughed up here was very dry, very hard - a few modifications were needed to the plough running where I wanted.

“Saturday, I probably wasn’t that happy with it, but Sunday, I came right and had a really good day ... and picked up the gold medal as well.”

Bob Merhtens from Timaru won the reversible plough last year and is also off to Prague, while Malcom Taylor won the category this year, so he’ll accompany Dillon to Croatia in 2026.