Plowing Match 24: President Steve Hallahan looks ahead to historic match
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
Huron County Plowmen's Association (HCPA) President Steve Hallahan is just about ready for the annual plowing match, which will be held on the Vermue family’s farm near Bayfield this year. It may still be a few days before the drawing of the first furrow, but all signs are already indicating that the 2024 Huron County Plowing Match is going to be a memorable one.
Hallahan believes that if the planning process continues at its current pace, he should be able to spend most of the actual match day taking it easy. At the most recent meeting, he was able to check off almost every box on the master list of things that need to get done before the big event, and he couldn’t ask for a more dedicated crew of volunteers and HCPA members to execute their collective vision for a successful plowing match. “If I did my job right beforehand, I shouldn’t have anything to worry about on the day of,” he quipped. “I think the part of the day that I enjoy most is just visiting with people, so hopefully it’s just a day where I can go around and visit with people and see all the demonstrations and visit some of the vendors…. It really is a day of fellowship.”
In addition to the over 40 tractors and plows that are expected to show up for the main event, there will also be the Princess and Queen of the Furrow competitions, demonstrations on cover crops and conservation tillage from the Huron County Soil and Crop Improvement Association, and, this year, a whole new event is being held on Sunday - a regional youth match. “It’s a plowing competition for kids from this area that just want to plow. Because lots of the time, it’s too expensive to get all your stuff and go to the IPM... this one will cost you nothing, and it’s close by, so you’re not trucking equipment all over the place. It’s just a friendly competition, to let the kids get more practice.”
Of course, there’s also the hotly anticipated Friday night banquet, which will once again feature Cardiff Catering’s famous roast beef, seasonal sides and desserts. “Cardiff’s has done the catering for years,” Hallahan said. “They put on a hell of a good meal. And that brings out a lot of people.”
One of the many reasons Hallahan thinks this is going to be a great plowing match is the enthusiasm of the whole Vermue family, who are hosting this year. “The excitement just seems to be building so quickly,” he said. “And I think it’s on account of this host family - they have excellent facilities, and all kinds of land, and a huge drive-in shed to host everything in. And they’re just honoured to have it, and excited to have it. When you work with people like that, it lifts everybody up.”
Hallahan got his start with the HCPA when he was in high school, and then, in 1978, he was awarded the IPM Award by the organization, “I think it was $500 at the time, and that helped me out a lot. When you finish school, and you want to farm, and you win an award from a group like this, it makes you feel as if you’re a real up-and-comer. And I hope that’s a feeling that we can transfer on to kids that are winning some of the scholarships this year, because they are up-and-comers! So we’re giving them a bit of money, and the recognition, to help them out with their schooling, and hopefully they can come back and have great careers here.”
Once Hallahan was farming full-time, his involvement with the county plowing match dropped off. “For a lot of years I never really had much to do with it,” he confessed. He ended up being brought back into the fold by one of his daughters. “When Grace got involved with the Princess competition, I was just being her driver, taking her to events here and there. Then, all of a sudden, you get nominated to be vice-president, and then after that you climb the ladder of this organization real quick.”
He may be the president now, but he hasn’t forgotten what he learned during his stint as Princess Grace’s driver. “The Queen and Princess competition just gives a lot of young girls the opportunity to get up and speak, or make presentations... they’re all high school- or college-age kids, and they’re excited about the plans they want to do - it’s young people that want to farm, they want to be in agriculture, they want to be in politics.” In his estimation, a successful Queen or Princess is outgoing, interested in public speaking, has knowledge about her community, and an interest in agriculture.
To become a plowing champion, Hallahan believes a person only really needs one thing - years and years of practice. “It is so particular!” he observed. “You’ll see guys out there with their tape measures, they’re getting down to a quarter of an inch, they’ve got their level sitting on their plow, the tire pressure of their tractors are right, the weights are distributed just right - it takes years of practice.”
Local plowing matches were once far more common all over Ontario than they are today - now, the annual Huron County match is one of the few that continues to flourish. Hallahan thinks the reason why the Huron County match is still going strong is obvious. “This is farming country! We’re the largest pork producers in the province, the largest chicken producers, the fourth-largest dairy producers - farming is a big deal in Huron County. And we’ve got companies like Huron Tractor and Hensall Co-op that employ hundreds of people - so everybody’s job and lifestyle contributes back to the agriculture of this area. You look at the crops, and the livestock, and the vegetables that are produced here, it’s kind of a day to celebrate, really.”