Barrie Allison, and his mother Nancie (85), hold New Zealand National Ploughing Championships trophies won by the late Stewart Allison; whose favourite 1963 Fordson Super Major tractor and Red & Gray plough can be seen in the background on the family farm Gowanbank, in Milton. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
Barrie Allison, and his mother Nancie (85), hold New Zealand National Ploughing Championships trophies won by the late Stewart Allison; whose favourite 1963 Fordson Super Major tractor and Red & Gray plough can be seen in the background on the family farm Gowanbank, in Milton. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
The Allison family have been tilling the soil on their family farm in Clutha for nearly 140 years. Shawn McAvinue talks to Barrie Allison about hosting the New Zealand Ploughing Championships in Milton and the legacy of his late father, champion ploughman Stewart Allison.
A celebration of Clutha champion ploughmanStewart Allison took place at the New Zealand Ploughing Championships on Friday, in the town where his family have been tilling soil for nearly 140 years.
Milton farmer Barrie Allison put his hand up to host the championships on land in his cropping operation, despite not competing in the sport.
Barrie Allison is the fourth generation to farm the now 125ha farm Gowanbank in Allison Rd, growing crops including barley, canola, grass seed, oats, peas and wheat.
The Allison family has farmed Gowanbank since 1886.
His great-grandfather Alexander Allison was able to buy Gowanbank by horse trading for a decade after moving from Scotland to Otago.
Late champion ploughman Stewart Allison, of Milton. Photo / Supplied
At Gowanbank, his grandfather William Allison bred Clydesdale horses with brothers Alexander and Gordon.
“This farm didn’t have a tractor until 1956. They had to give in because tractors had taken over in the early 1950s and there was no money in breeding horses.”
He recalled his father’s frustration when his grandfather sold a proven team of horses on short notice when there was ploughing work to be done on the farm.
“He’d have to break another team to finish a paddock. He was still [angry] about that when he died,” Barrie said laughing.
Stewart’s widow Nancie Allison said when her husband started in the sport and continued to win matches, he discovered he only had enough time to pursue one sport.
At the time, he was knocking on the door for selection in the Otago rugby team.
An 1896 Reid & Gray horse plough on Gowanbank farm in Milton, used by late champion ploughman Stewart Allison in his first competition, aged 15, in 1948. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
“He thought he’d have more chance at an international trip with ploughing.”
At age 23, he qualified for his first New Zealand ploughing final on a tractor in 1955.
He went on to become the first ploughman to win the national championships final three times.
“No other ploughman has won three national championships by the age of 37,” Allison said.
He represented New Zealand at the World Ploughing Championships in Northern Ireland in 1959, Christchurch in 1966 and Yugoslavia in 1969.
New Zealand hosted the world championship for the first time in 1966 so “he pulled out all the stops to compete on home turf”.
In Christchurch, he got his best result at a world championship - a second-place ploughing stubble.
Nancie Allison. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
After qualifying for the nationals in 1969, he learned the world championships clashed with lambing and he was busier than usual after increasing the size of his farm and mortgage and did not have time to compete overseas.
In an attempt to set himself up to fail, he tweaked his plough so he would lose points for a lack of weed control.
Despite his measures to hamper his ploughing, he won the nationals and went on to represent New Zealand “behind the iron curtain”.
Rules at the time stated if someone won a national or world championship three times, they had to retire from the sport.
Consequently, he was unable to compete again until 1979, when the rule was overturned.
“From the age of 37 to 47, he wasn’t allowed to plough - that’s your prime in a mental sport.”
2023 New Zealand National Ploughing Championships competition organiser Nigel Woodhead. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
The two-day national championships this year were held on about 90ha the Allison family leases from Calder Stewart, opposite its headquarters, Revolution Hills, on State Highway 1.
The championships showcased traditional ploughing techniques used before herbicide was used for weed control, Allison said.
Without herbicide, ploughing needed to be precise to ensure “trash”, such as weed seeds and shoots, was buried and would not germinate.
Traditionally, a ploughman created steep furrows in autumn.
Barrie Allison. Photo / Shawn McAvinue
The furrows, parallel channels in the soil, were left for winter so the frosty conditions could break down the soil.
When the soil dried in spring, a brush of the harrow created “a nice little tilth” to put seed in.
“That’s what real ploughing is about.”
On the competition plots in Milton, weeds had been allowed to grow and were recently sprayed with herbicide so the trash would remain green for the competition but would die, no matter the quality of ploughing.
Ploughing in a straight line had become easier with technology, such as GPS, but competitors were not allowed such modern aids.
“They’ve got a ruler and measuring tapes,” Allison said.
A crowd gathers to watch Clutha ploughman Stewart Allison compete. Photo / Supplied
National competition organiser Nigel Woodhead, of Milton, said more than 30 teams competed across five classes - silver plough, reversible, horse, contemporary and vintage.
Challenges for competitors were the contour of the plots and the possibility of buried fence posts, Waratahs or wire.
Each plot once had a fence line running across it, he said.
Competitors drew their plots at an icebreaker event last Tuesday.
Clutha ploughman Stewart Allison (middle), standing next to Atlantic New Zealand manager R F Blackmore, receives the Silver Plough trophy from Prime Minister Keith Holyoake (left) after winning the New Zealand National Ploughing Championships in Masterton in 1969. Photo / Supplied
If a competitor dug up a fence post and it impacted the presentation of their plot, that was the luck of the draw, Woodhead said.
A public event, the championships included trade sites, food vendors, family entertainment and demonstrations of vintage machinery, freestyle motocross and an i-Plough, technology, allowing plough settings to be adjusted from a screen in a tractor cab.
After Woodhead won the Young Farmer of the Year competition in 2017, he was invited to compete at a national ploughing championship in a bid to attract young competitors to the sport.
