OPA Makes Changes to its Queen of the Furrow Program

May 15, 2014

New Age Requirements Announced

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

The Ontario Plowmen’s Association (OPA) announced new rules (age requirements) governing its Queen of the Furrow Program.

Contestants now must be at least 18 years of age by January 1st and have not reached their 25th birthday by December 31st to compete at their local county competition. Previously, contestants only needed to be 16 years of age and hold a valid driver’s licence. The new policy was announced ahead of local county association plowing matches that will begin to take place this summer. Rules will be in effect for the 2015 International Plowing Match.

Winners at the county level have the opportunity to compete for the provincial title of Ontario Queen of the Furrow at the IPM every year. Changes to the rules were outlined in the OPA’s spring newsletter, called "Straight from the Furrow."

In order to compete, queen contestants are required to participate in an interview, plow a parcel of land and deliver a prepared speech. Winners will represent their local plowing association at various community events promoting agriculture throughout the year before competing at the IPM.

The rule that contestants must be “single and without dependents,” be unmarried and without children remains unchanged. Local county associations are asked to keep the revised rules in mind when recruiting contestants for their local competitions.

The 2014 IPM will be held in Simcoe County, Ontario.

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.