BY JANE BLOODWORTH ROWE
CREEDS — Ashton Lewis fell in love with tractors when he was a small child, and now he’s helping farmer Bonney Bright coordinate Plow Day, which is scheduled this year for Saturday, Nov. 5, at Bright’s farm in rural Creeds.
This year’s event will also include a tractor display, so all tractor owners are welcome, even if they don’t have a plow, Lewis said. Farmers and antique tractor collectors participate in the annual event, and the Albemarle Antique Power Association helps coordinate it.
Plow Day began in 2019, and it features antique and vintage tractors and plows. It highlights a method of deep plowing that used powerful equipment that could cut deeply and quickly into the earth’s surface. That method began to yield in the late 20th century to a form of tillage that disturbs the soil less. This reduces the erosion that can result from deep plowing. Today’s equipment is more fuel efficient, too.
Still, farmers sometimes become nostalgic for the deep plowing because it was associated with the smell of freshly turned earth and the sounds of powerful equipment, Lewis said. Farmers and collectors sometimes celebrate the old ways with plow days in which they come together to plow as much land as possible in one day.
“We’ll do the deep plowing, the way it used to be done,” Lewis said.
The participants will probably plow about 150 acres this year, Lewis said.
Lewis expects that the oldest tractors there will be 1930s vintage, and he said that there will be about 50 tractors.
The oldest tractors, which were usually gasoline-powered, were called “poppers,” Bright said, because of the noise that the engine made.
Lewis still remembers his first tractor ride when, as a small child, he rode in his uncle’s lap on the uncle’s newly purchased 1950 John Deere.
“That’s when I got hooked on tractors,” Lewis said.
He and Bright decided to organize a Plow Day in Virginia Beach a few years ago after attending similar events in other areas. The event is always held in a field on Bright’s farm.
“It’s wonderful that Bonney provides such a good venue,” Lewis said.
Bright expects that this year’s event will attract more participants than in previous years.
“I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls about it,” he said, adding that many people from out of state had called and expressed an interest in coming.
Spectators are also welcome, Lewis said.
There is no admission fee, and food vendors will provide barbecue, fried chicken, and vegetables.
This year’s Plow Day is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 5, at Bonney Bright’s Farm, 5513 Buzzard Neck Road. The rain date is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 12. For more information call (757) 721-5829 or (252) 312-6504.
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