Dividing up 135 acres into enough plots to keep 178 ploughing competitors busy for two days is no mean feat but it is one that will be accomplished over the next two weeks under the guidance of Scottish Ploughing Championships chairman Rab Birrell and his vice chairman John Tait.
They were on site at Newlands and Pittendreich farms near Milnathort on Thursday last week making preliminary measurements.
By Wednesday October 22 they will be joined by around 25 other volunteers as the serious business of marking out the plots reaches its final phase ahead of the championships on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26.
The whole site actually runs to 250 acres to allow for car parking, trade stands and demonstration plots making the Scottish Ploughing Championships one of the great spectacles of the farming year.
“We have 178 entries this year making it the second largest ever. There will be vintage,classic, trailling and horse ploughing both days with around 36 ploughmen competing in the plough-offs on the Sunday. That will be world style ploughing and allow us to select a reversible champion and a conventional champion to compete for Scotland in the next world championships in Denmark,” said Mr Birrell.
This year eight pairs of horse have been entered and, weather permitting, there will be a rare chance to see a demonstration of steam ploughing using two engines and a balance plough.
With competitors coming from all around Scotland, including several from Caithness which hosted the championships last year, Kinross-shire will be a busy place over the weekend with many hotels and bed and breakfasts already booked out.
The host farmers are the Niven family at Pittendreich and Robert Erskine at Newlands with John Weir, Lacceston also supplying an adjacent field. The main sponsor is plough manufacturer Kverneland.