ALMOST non-existent in Australia, traditional mouldboard ploughing has seen a resurgence, with a few southern-based farmers keen to connect to their English roots.
While still a common occurrence throughout Europe, mouldboard ploughing is not common in WA paddocks.
Retired Bridgetown farmer Gerald Richings is eager to make sure this technique of ploughing doesn't become a thing of the past, and hosts regular competitions with farmers to keep the practice alive.
He lovingly houses a range of different tractors, ranging from a tractor he is rebuilding to a McCormick Farmall tractor that is as old as him - a young 79 years.
Sitting proudly in the middle of the shed is Mr Richings' bright blue 1960-70s 42.5 kilowatt (57 horsepower) Ford 4000, fitted with a mouldboard plough at the back.
When he starts the tractor up, it gives a welcoming rumble and as he drives it to the next door paddock to demonstrate the ploughing technique.
Once the mouldboard plough is set down onto the ground, it slowly rotates, turning over the grass to reveal the dark, moist soil underneath.
He drives in straight lines, until the paddock is overturned into neat heaps, and the contrast between the green grass and the fresh soil is striking.
According to Mr Richings, driving a mouldboard plough isn't as simple as getting onto the seat and giving it full noise.
Keeping the tractor straight for a long stretch is an artform within itself, something that many farmers no longer need to worry about thanks to GPS mapping and integrated tractor systems.
"Modern tractors are so big and they have all this satellite navigation system," Mr Richings said.
"You can sit in a tractor and then if you had a big enough paddock you could go to Bunbury in a dead straight line.
"You don't have to steer the thing."
Ever since he was young, Mr Richings has been mouldboard ploughing.
Back in England, every weekend he would meet up with his mates and plough somewhere.
His dad would have to drive the tractor on the road, since he was only 14 and legally wasn't able to drive it yet.
"Some friends played tennis every weekend, older people played golf and went bowling, but we just drove tractors," Mr Richings said
As an 18-year-old he bought his own tractor and began working as a contractor in England.
The youngster didn't intend on working for someone else all his life, and his farm was too small for him to work at home all week, so instead he borrowed some money and bought a tractor.
The endless practice has helped Mr Richings become the expert plougher he is today.
"I was ploughing most of the year, that's all I ever did," he said.
"It's like playing tennis.
"It comes natural after a while."
Mr Richings' competitions have international rules and contestants are judged by burying the trash, straightness and firmness of the ground and other technical benchmarks.
The first competition was held 12 years ago after some of his English mates were getting nostalgic over their past.
It was a massive success, and there were fifteen tractors there on the first day.
Since then, the competition has only grown and the participants have become more competitive.
At the start of October, Mr Richings held a mouldboard ploughing event at Albany, where farmers vied for the honour of being the mouldboard champion.
There was a good turn out for the event, despite it being one of the busiest times of the year, and he was appreciative of those who could make it.
"It's a very busy time of the year for farmers and retired farmers, there are so many events around the place, they are hay making and silage making, they are doing all sorts of things," Mr Richings said.
He doesn't compete as often anymore, instead he finds more joy helping out younger members who might not have as much experience.
"I get much more satisfaction from helping the younger or older members that can't do it, and moving them from the bottom up the ladder a little bit," Mr Richings said.
"You've got to remember Australians haven't done a lot of mouldboard ploughing because it's such a young country - full of stumps and roots in the ground and rocks.
"Whereas in Europe, that's all that's all we ever did."
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There is a farmer who contacted Mr Richings a month ago and asked him whether he could get help if he brought his own tractor.
During the Albany competition, he spent his time with him and said he did an excellent job.
After just one taste of the mouldboard ploughing world, he decided to get another tractor more suited for ploughing and get right into it.
In 2019, three of the members from Mr Richings' club went to Victoria to compete in Gippsland for the national mouldboard ploughing competition and the three Western Australians were the top three in the field of 60.
Mr Richings was particularly looking forward to 2024, when the national competition will be held in the Bridgetown and Manjimup areas.
"Of course it's exciting for Bridgetown, there are three or four of us who organised this and it's worked very well," he said.
However, mouldboard ploughing is slowly dying, as farmers moving from England who are familiar with the practice are becoming less.
Mr Richings hopes to get some younger blood into the practice so it continues to flourish long after he retires from the sport.
"Why should young people go and play golf or play cricket or go fishing?" he said.
"It's no different to spending the weekend playing golf, I suppose."
Along with the nostalgia of his youth that comes with mouldboard ploughing, Mr Richings also likes to keep the traditions of the past.
He said it was nice to keep the older traditions going so that the younger generation could see what farming used to look like.
"I mean, a lot of young people wouldn't have a clue what we're talking about," Mr Richings said.
He also likes the idea of mouldboard ploughing as it existed before the heavy use of chemicals within the agricultural industry.
After being a dairy farmer, Mr Richings started farming cauliflower and carrots, however he hated the consistent use of chemicals that was needed to produce high levels of productivity.
"We used to grow crops to plough in the ground, so they could break down and become fertiliser," he said.
"Now we're chemical farmers, we just pour on the chemicals, I don't believe in it.
"What we were putting on was just terrible."
Out of a 60 tonne crop of carrots, he would have to throw away almost half because they weren't straight or were green at the top.
"I guess it's probably a sign of the times, if we were all organic farmers I think we'd probably starve," Mr Richings said.
