Reversible ploughing sparks interest at championships
The extra focus was in line with the trend in commercial ploughing, which has seen a switch in Europe to a point where 99% of all new plough sales are of the reversible type.
Describing the more modern approach, James Walsh, a judge from Wexford, said the conventional plough is in a fixed position and turns the soil out to the right of the tractor, so you must always work in the same direction.
“With the reversible, you lift it at the headland, turn it over and plough back in the opposite direction, turning the soil out to the left,”, he said.
Mr Walsh said the result is no middles or furrows in the middle of the field.
“So you end up with a leveler field and you can do faster work, and in good conditions you should expect to plough twenty acres a day with a four furrow reversible,” he said.
Anna Marie McHugh, National Ploughing Association, said the encouragement of reversible ploughing is part of the NPA development programme.
“It is a new rule of world ploughing that by 2005 we must have one member of the Irish team in world contests working with a reversible plough so we have to raise its profile in the national event in the meantime,” she said.
There were 15 entries in the under 28 reversible and 14 in the senior reversible at Ballacolla.
