The Scottish Ploughing Championships will be held in Kinross-shire for the first time when Newlands and Pittendreich farms play host on October 25 and 26.
The venue is right next door to the border with Fife and will use one field over the county boundary from the Weirs of Lacesston. This land under the Bishop Hill and overlooking Loch Leven is known as Bishopshire and, like all parts of the county, agriculture is a key feature.
The county is home to the Kinross-shire Agricultural Society, which runs the popular Kinross show every August, and Kinross and District JAC young farmers’ club.
Newlands Farm itself is now the home of Kay Trailers, run by one of the host farmers, Robert Erskine.
The manufacturer originally worked out of nearby Milnathort and built horse carts before moving on to farm trailers.
Another local manufacturer with farming connections is Koronka of Kinross.
Also close by is John Drysdale at Kinnesswood, the local McCormick dealer and agricultural engineer.
Residing in the area are many vintage tractor enthusiasts who take part in the vintage and classic ploughing classes at the championships or put their machines in the static displays.
Others take an interest in horticultural machinery and will take part in a special demonstration class.
The other host farm is Pittendreich, farmed by Robin Niven who, along with his wife and brother, also runs Loch Leven’s Larder based at Channel of Pittendreich. The name no doubt refers to the drainage systems which brought so much former moss land surrounding the loch into full production.
Indeed the River Leven, which exits the loch nearby, was straightened and deepened in the middle of the 1800s to aid drainage and to supply more water to industry further downstream, such as the paper mills in Leslie.
The Loch forms the centre of the county, which is in reality a basin surrounded by the Bishop Hill in the east, Ochils in the north, Clackmannanshire hills in the west and Cleish Hills to the south. These hills supplied much of the livestock to the former auction marts in the county.
The first in Kinross was opened by a Mr Kenyon in 1880 before moving to Milnathort in 1890 after the arrival of the railway.
In 1912 Hay & Co took over until closure in 1980.
Also in Milnathort was Young & Bethune’s Mart, which opened in 1897 and was taken over by MacDonald Fraser in 1920. It closed in 1985.
In the 1830s the county was said to have good shorthorned cattle and a good many crosses.
It was also noted at the time that some Ayrshire cows had started to arrive from the west for the seven or eight dairy farms starting to operate.
Over the years the number of dairies would increase.
Sheep were mainly of the Blackface type, although a flock of Leicesters resided at Annacrioch Farm.
It was also said that more horses were reared in Kinross-shire than any other county in proportion to its size, which at the time was estimated at 49,812 acres with 31,459 under crop.
However, it was not all livestock as there was and still is a large arable sector, with the 1881 cereal acreage given as 7,296. There were 957 acres of potatoes and four acres in carrots.
Tractors arrived in the early years of the 20th Century.
The first combine to appear was a wartime Massey Harris No 21 at Annacrioch Farm south of the county town.
No doubt the combine would have been supplied by Geo Baxter of Milnathort, who were Massey Harris dealers as well as being a depot for the Dept of Agriculture for Scotland’s machinery pool.
Baxters were also agents for Case tractors, which proved to be very popular throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
In the post-war era they became agents for Nuffield tractors, Land Rovers and Dania combines.
Another company serving the machinery needs of the area is Geo Colliar of Balado, and Geo Henderson at Kinross.
Many other agricultural supply companies are still based in the area such as Carrs Billington and Robertson’s, while on the north side of the former Balado airfield is Harleys Seeds, which dates from 1947.
The championships will also see for the first time in its history a display of steam ploughing.
While the flat land at Balado in later years became famous for T in the Park, another event once held at the site was the popular Steam in the Park steam rally, so the Scottish debut of the first ever pair of matching ploughing engines in preservation in the country is entirely fitting.
These engines, owned by the Cook family of Leven, are Fowler BB1s and date from the spring of 1918.
They were part of an order for 90 sets placed with Fowlers by the UK government. This was in response to the German U-boat blockade and the poor harvest of 1917 which put food supplies in jeopardy.
The two engines to be ploughing at the championships were the very first ones of that contract built, and it is said that Prime Minister Lloyd George stood on the footplate of one them as it emerged from Fowlers Steam Plough Works in Leeds.
The engines and tackle of plough, living van, cultivator, harrows, press and water cart were bought by Arthur Stratton of Wiltshire.
Later they were bought by Thomas Boughton of winch fame to take part in the ill-fated ground nut scheme in East Africa in the late 1940s.
The failure of the scheme meant they never went abroad, although they had been used to trial special Ransome’s discs for the project.
Both engines ended up in preservation and took part in the 1962 Woburn Rally, and appeared in the feature film Iron Maiden being shot there.
Following this, engine number 15139, known as Mistress, was sold into preservation in Canada where it resided for nigh on 50 years before being bought and brought back home by the Cooks who had already bought its partner, 15138 Master.
A six-furrow anti-balance plough was also bought from Canada and it will be pulled back and forth between the two engines.
Steam ploughing is like nothing else: no engine noise and just the swishing of the soil as it turns. In that respect it is like horse ploughing. No fewer than eight pairs are entered for this year’s championships.