Ploughman set for Germany
Timaru truck driver Bob Mehrtens will represent New Zealand at the World Ploughing Contest in Germany next year..
Mehrtens was the winner of the reversible event at the New Zealand Ploughing Championships at Kirwee last weekend. Ian Woolley of Blenheim, who won the Silver Plough will also represent New Zealand.
Half a century of dedication to competitive ploughing has earned Mehrtens iconic status amongst his fellow sportsmen. He has been a national ploughing champion nine times, and eight times represented New Zealand at the world ploughing championships.
He has competed at the national championships 39 times and to do so had to win one of the qualifying events held around the country each year. His passion for the sport is unrivalled.
Ploughing competitors compete in either the conventional or reversible classes. Mehrtens favours the reversible class, which became part of the world championships in 2006.
‘‘Reversible ploughs were becoming increasingly popular in farming so the World Ploughing Organisation came up with a plan to include a reversible class. Now every country must send one reversible and one conventional contestant to the world champs.
‘‘I compete in the reversible class because the NZ Ploughing Association (NZPA) told me to because I had won the conventional class so often.There are now about eight of us in the reversible class. I hated it to start with but it was a challenge.’’
A reversible plough can be turned over by the tractor’s hydraulics at the end of the furrow and the next pass made against the previous strip. A conventional plough can only turn the soil one way.
Competitors from 28 countries are involved in world ploughing; New Zealand and Australia are the only countries from the southern hemisphere. Most competitors come from Europe where ploughing is strong.
The Austrians were extremely good and took the sport seriously Mehrtens said. They have a ploughing school to hone skills.
The sport has lost some ground in New Zealand in recent decades with a lot of people retiring, Mehrtens said.
‘‘I remember when I started ploughing in the conventional class back in the 1970s, there would be 30 people lining up to win. Now there’s 10. But the competition is getting stronger, there is no room for error.’’
Mehrtens began competitive ploughing at 12-years-old; the age at which he could legally drive a tractor, he said.
‘‘I went to a ploughing match at Levels - a New Zealand nationals final - and I thought I would like to have a go. A friend of my father’s got me started. I had no plough, no truck, no tractor and he loaned me his own for the first year.’’
Mehrtens was chucked in the deep end. He knew the basics of ploughing but not the finer details of the sport. But he found a mentor in experienced competitor John Kyle who urged him to keep with it.
‘‘I got a taste for it and worked up to buying my own gear. After that, I never looked back. I’m tractor mad. It was an opportunity to drive them, with something on the back, and a chance to compete and get better at it.’’
He improved, ploughing straighter and neater. They were the key components of competitive ploughing, he said.
‘‘I won my first qualifier in Blenheim in 1976. This got me into the final. My coach was there. I didn’t get off to a great start but he told me ‘never give up’ and I got a third that day.’’