MAY 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Plow match unfurrows brows about farming


OK plowmen prevail at Chilliwack


by DAVID SCHMIDT CHILLIWACK – Chilliwack


may host the largest plowing match in the province but it seems it’s no longer the home of the best plowmen. First place in the single plow divisions of both the tractor and horse plowing classes went to plowmen from the north Okanagan. Mike Strotman of Salmon


Arm won the BC tractor championship while Adam Degenstein of Armstrong topped the horse plowing during the Chilliwack Plowing Match on April 1. The plowing match is normally held in east Chilliwack but was moved to a large field opposite a residential subdivision in Sardis this year. Although it was a dreary day, the new location attracted some interest from urban residents who had never seen competitive plowing before. Nancy Chelczynski was one of those people. After watching the plowmen and women exercising their horses earlier in the week from her window, she decided to take a closer look. She struck up a friendship with Ellen Hockley of


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Nancy Chelczynski was so enamored of the horses at the Chilliwack Plowing Match, being held across the street from her Chilliwack home, April 1, she came over to take a look. She got a lot more as Ellen Hockley let her take a turn on the sulky plow. DAVID SCHMIDT PHOTO


Armstrong, the only competitor in the horse sulky plow class. During the Saturday afternoon competition, Hockley not only welcomed Chelczynski back, but let her take a turn on the plow (with Hockley walking beside holding the reins). It was a thrill


Chelczynski said she will never forget, and suggests how important it is to maintain these dying arts. As the 2017 BC champion,


Strotman will be participating in the Canadian championships in Walkerton, Ontario this fall. He will be joined by the second-place


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finisher in the single plow tractor class, Pierre Sache of Rosedale. Also heading to the Canadian championships are Francis Sache of Rosedale and Bill Higginson of Sardis, who will be competing in the reversible plow class. For Higginson, a former Canadian champion, this represents his


return to competitive plowing after work-related absences for the last few years. Placing second in the horse


plowing class was Phil Rogers of Lillooet. In the antique tractor class, Al Pearson of Kelowna placed first and Hunter Ramey of Agassiz placed second.


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