Kyle Ross peeks underneath the steering wheel of his tractor in an effort to make his furrow as straight as an arrow.
He wants to do it just right because he’s been waiting for a long time to be part of the Lambton County Plowing Match.
Ross is just 10 and his mom, Rachel, says he’s been wanting to be involved in the plowing match for the last three years.
Ross has been working on the farm at home since he was seven. He helps out in the fields, spreading fertilizer and cutting the straw. “He’s our farm boy, that’s for sure,” says Rachel as he carefully cuts his way down the field under his dad’s watchful eye.
But he wasn’t allowed to compete until he joined a 4H Plowing Club and he couldn’t do that until he was 10.
So this year, Ross and his family have travelled to a number of different matches so he can test his skills, “to get some practical experience and just to have some fun.”
But Ross is quite serious about plowing.
The 10 year-old drives very slowly, his eyes peering out from under the steering wheel in an attempt to make his furrow straight. “He tries for perfection,” says Rachel adding she wishes he would relax a little and “try for more fun.”
But to Ross, this is serious stuff. “He plays hockey and soccer but he’d pick farming over any sport,” she says.
Ross was the youngest competitor at this year’s event. About 32 people from Lambton, Kent and Middlesex came out to the match which turned a wheat field on McAuslan Line south of Inwood into a hive of activity Saturday.