THEY turned out from far and wide to compete in the annual ploughing competition for the Llangattock Ploughing Society.

The society’s main event of the year was held last Sunday, 17th September, with ploughing from vintage classes through to modern monsters and a few teams of horses to top off what must be the best rural shows in the county for spectacle and entertainment.

Add in gun dogs and military vehicles in the main ring, through to homecraft competitions and sheep classes, working agricultural demos and live music with a bouncy castle and face painting for the younger farmers, the organisers were grateful for a fine day in a year of misery for the farming calendar.

Tony Bradley was Champion Ploughman winning the Ron Williams Perpetual Trophy and also won the Gordon Sutton Memorial Shield as the best Monmouthshire Ploughman.

Beau Cole had an excellent day taking home a haul of trophies - winning the Phil Bowen Memorial Trophy presented by Jenny Bowen and family for being placed first in the Three Furrow Conventional Class. He also won the South Wales Argus YFC Cup as the best young farmer ploughing on the day and the Trellech Farmers Cup as the youngest competitor. Beau is aged 14.

Roger Smith won the High Cut Horse Ploughing Class.

The horse ploughing teams reminded us how it was done two generations ago when farming was a different way of life compared to today’s tangled web of health and safety, EU regulations, GPS guided tractors and where most problems can’t be solved with baler string anymore.