Ontario Plowmen's Association

The OPA is the parent host of the International Plowing Match. Each year the OPA partners with a local plowing association to organize and host the IPM.

The International Plowing Match is a sanctioned member of the North American Farm Show Council. As such, it maintains the highest standards set by the council.

The organization of a provincial Association in 1911 gave life to branches all across the province. The numbers grew until today we have 48 local plowing groups affiliated with the parent body: the Ontario Plowmen's Association (OPA). The OPA has a board of directors, each representing a Branch Association that has held a County or Region plowing match with membership varying in size from Branch to Branch. Contact Information

Mailing Address:   Ontario Plowmen's Association, 188 Nicklin Road, Guelph, Ontario N1H 7L5
Telephone:           1-519-767-2928 or 1-800-661-7569
Fax:                      1-519-767-2101
Email:                   eventadmin@plowingmatch.org

Plowing Matches have been part of our agricultural history in Ontario for well over a century. In the early days they were sponsored by Agricultural Societies, the first farm groups to be established.

History records that in 1846 when the first provincial exhibition was held in the city of Toronto, a special feature of the event was a plowing match. It took place on a farm on Young Street in the vicinity of St. Claire Avenue.

These matches not only gave farmers an opportunity to display their skill in the handling of a walking plow, but to show the fine teams of horses, many of which were imported or were from imported stock.