The competition is heating up at the International Plowing Match in Ivy.

The plowing itself – and the quest for the best furrow -  is a centrepiece of the annual celebration of rural living.

Plowers are judged on the straightness and evenness of the furrows, and whether the grass is fully turned.

Judge Keith Davenport says his job isn’t all that difficult.

"All you have to do is look at the furrows and you can tell by the eye whether they're even or whether they're not and if you really get technical you can get the measurer out."

Some furrows are not created by tractors but by horse.

"It's a hobby,” says horse plower Kim Hawden. “It’s just something we do on weekends instead of golfing. We horse plow."

"When you're out in the field you don't hear the tractor and all the noise, you just hear the horses. It's also that you work with the horses as a person, because they're one of you" says Hawden.

160 plowers are competing in either tractor or horse plowing, and by the end of the event more than 300 acres will have been plowed.