Fifty Competitors From Twenty-Five Countries Ploughed Two Fields in Croatia and a Slovene Won the Golden Plough
The 71st World Ploughing Contest was judged on furrow uniformity across alfalfa on the Friday and wheat stubble on the Saturday.
The 71st World Ploughing Contest was held on 4 and 5 September on the Mitrovac estate at Grabovac in Baranja, Osijek-Baranja County. It is the first time Croatia has hosted.
Matej Sinic of Slovenia won the conventional flat plough class. Mathieu Cormoreche of France won the reversible plough class. Over 50 competitors from 25 nations entered.
The format is two days on two surfaces. Friday was four-year alfalfa, ploughed at 18 to 22 centimetres. Saturday was wheat stubble at the same depth. International officials of the World Ploughing Organization judge furrow-opening skill, uniformity and the direction of the ploughing, which is why a competitor can lose on a field that looks finished to anyone else.
Croatia's best placings were Sasa Visak, thirteenth in the flat plough class, and Josip Martinovic, fourteenth in the reversible.
The prize is the Golden Plough statue and a working plough donated by a local manufacturer. The wider programme ran 29 August to 6 September, including an agricultural machinery exhibition, with competitors housed on the Osijek university campus.
Future hosts are provisionally Kenya in December 2027, then the Netherlands, New Zealand, France, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Kosovo and Wales.