Media
Volunteer Day
Finch - For those of you who weren't able to attend we’re sending out a few photo highlights of the 2015 IPM Volunteer Orientation Day held this weekend (September 12) at the Tented City 14939 Concession Rd 3-4, Finch, ON. Click Volunteer Day for more.
First furrow plowed at IPM Media Day
Finch -- It was shorter than regulation, a bit lacking in the curl but straight as an arrow. The first furrow was plowed at the site of the 2015 Stormont Dundas Glengarry International Plowing Match and Rural Expo (IPM) on Wednesday at a pre-match Media Day.
The traditional first furrow was plowed by Nelson Zandbergen, editor of Eastern Ontario AgriNews and the Chesterville Record. The opportunity to plow the first furrow was determined by a draw from members of the media who attended the event with IPM sponsors, organizers and elected officials. Click here for more.
BMO Ontario Farm Family Awards Honouring Ten Ontario Families
The Ontario Plowmen's Association are pleased to announce the 10 Ontario families who have been chosen to receive the 2015 BMO Ontario Farm Family Award. The families, who are being honoured for their dedication to Ontario's agriculture sector and the rural way of life, will be formally recognized at this year's International Plowing Match & Rural Expo in Finch, Ontario, on Saturday, September 26. Click here for more.
Calling all Auctioneers!
First Ever IPM Auctioneers' Challenge:
Thursday, September 24 - 1 pm to 4:30 pm. Click here for more.
Purse
First Place - $1000
Second Place - $750
Third Place - $500
1936 McCormick-Deering W-30 -- Eastern Ontario’s first rubber tired tractor
SDG - August 24, 2015 -“We’ve had so much enjoyment from mother’s diary,” says 80-year-old Coleman MacDonald of Williamstown. Daphne MacDonald’s August 1, 1936 entry chronicles a milestone for North American farmers in the 1930s. Grand day! Wilfred and Bob made a deal for a new tractor with rubber tires. Wilfred, Coleman’s late father, bought the 1936 McCormick-Deering W-30 from Bob “The Widow” MacDonald, the local International equipment dealer. The newly-restored tractor will be on display at the 2015 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo, September 22-26. Click here for more.
Photo Highlights of the IPM Autumn Splendour Quilt Show held August 14-15 at the Finch Arena.
About 110 competition quilts were displayed at the two-day show, as well several fibre arts demonstrations and dozens of vendors in the merchant mall. Click here for photo highlights.
Order Your Banquet Tickets Today!
Queen of the Furrow Crowning Banquet - Thursday, September 24
Celebration of Excellence - Friday, September 25
IPM 2015 Trip Draw
Draw Date - September 26, 2015 @ 4pm in 2015 Tented City
Tickets available at the Souvenir Store, Local Events and some Committee Members.
Click here for more information.
IPM 2015 Quilt Raffle
Draw Date - September 26, 2015 in 2015 Tented City
Tickets avaliable at Giroux Sewing Centre, Cornwall & Flare with Fabrics, Chesterville.
Click here for more information.
IPM 2015 Sewing Maching Raffle
Draw Date - September 26, 2015 in 2015 Tented City
Tickets avaliable at Giroux Sewing Centre, Cornwall & Flare with Fabrics, Chesterville.
Click here for more information.
Day Trips from the Seaway Valley 1000 Island RV Campground - September 22, 23, 24 & 25
Four predesigned, guided day trips have been created to show IPM 2015 RV Park visitors around our great region. Click here for details. Limited seating is available. Book your tour by August 26 by calling Cornwall and the Counties Tourism, 1-800-937-4748.
IPM 2015 Worship Service
Sunday, September 20 at 3 pm
Finch Arena - 4 John St, in the Village of Finch
IPM Autumn Splendour Quilt Show
SDG - July 27, 2015 - Winners of the Stormont Dundas Glengarry 2015 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo (IPM) quilt competition will be revealed at the Autumn Splendour Quilt Show next month. More than 100 quilts will be judged and displayed at the two-day event to be held at the Finch Arena, August 14-15, 2015. Click here for more.
From Walking Plow to Google for Centenarian Plowman
SDG - June 24, 2015 - At 100 years of age Fay Shaver of Maxville could very well be the oldest plowman in the province.
Raised on a one hundred-acre farm at the north end of old Osnabruck Township, Stormont County, he recalls the autumn landscape and what was surely the impetus for the plowing match tradition. Click here for more.
International Plowing Match Royalty – Queen of the Furrow
SDG - June 19, 2015 - Fabienne Kagi, Stormont County’s Queen of the Furrow is moving it into overdrive with the International Plowing Match (IPM) only a few short months away. Click here for more.
4-H 100th Anniversary Gala Dinner
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Cornwall Civic Complex
For 100 years, 4-H Ontario volunteers, members, and staff have worked together to create one of the foremost leadership programs for youth. In 2015, 4-H Ontario marks its century year, celebrating the remarkable success of a program that remains as popular today as it was back in its earliest years.
Join 4-H for a gala evening celebrating the past, engaging the present, and creating the future. Click here for more information.
Entertainers Coming Home for the IPM 2015
April 29, 2015 - In a bid to put their best foot forward, organizers have secured some serious toe-tapping talent for the Stormont Dundas Glengarry International Plowing Match and Rural Expo at Finch on September 22-26.
“We’re both pleased and very proud to announce that Glengarry fiddler Kelli Trottier and Stormont- born, Nashville entertainer Greg Hanna have been booked and confirmed for the IPM main stage,” says Steve Stang , chair of the IPM entertainment committee. Click here for more.
1936 McCormick-Deering W-30 -- Eastern Ontario’s first rubber tired tractor
SDG - August 24, 2015 -“We’ve had so much enjoyment from mother’s diary,” says 80-year-old Coleman MacDonald of Williamstown. Daphne MacDonald’s August 1, 1936 entry chronicles a milestone for North American farmers in the 1930s. Grand day! Wilfred and Bob made a deal for a new tractor with rubber tires. Wilfred, Coleman’s late father, bought the 1936 McCormick-Deering W-30 from Bob “The Widow” MacDonald, the local International equipment dealer. The newly-restored tractor will be on display at the 2015 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo, September 22-26. Click here for more.
Company’s coming!
FINCH - August 10, 2015 - People across the Counties are sprucing things up in anticipation of the 2015 Stormont Dundas Glengarry International Plowing Match and Rural Expo (IPM). “The aim of the IPM Beautification Committee is to encourage people to think about fun and creative ways they can make a good impression,” says committee chair Sandra Donnelly. “With as many as 100,000 visitors coming to the region for the IPM we wa nt to put our best foot forward.”“There’s still time to enter the contest which wraps up at the end of the month,” says Donnelly. “And there are prizes and cash to be won.” Click here for more.
IPM Autumn Splendour Quilt Show
SDG - July 27, 2015 - Winners of the Stormont Dundas Glengarry 2015 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo (IPM) quilt competition will be revealed at the Autumn Splendour Quilt Show next month. More than 100 quilts will be judged and displayed at the two-day event to be held at the Finch Arena, August 14-15, 2015.
“What began as a utilitarian household necessity grew into a colourful form of self-expression for our grandmothers and great-grandmothers and is now a mainstay of the fibre arts world,” says Monique Wilson, Chair of the IPM Quilt Committee.
That artist self-expression is echoed in the work of special guest Cathy Miller, the Singing Quilter. “The Victoria, British Columbia singer/songwriter, recording artist and quilter is very well known in the quilting community,” says Wilson, “and will be a great attraction and addition to our show.”
IPM quilt competition categories include contemporary and traditional quilting, using both domestic and computerised machines, as well as free motion long arm- quilting and traditional hand-stitched quilts and quilted items. Click here for more.
From Walking Plow to Google for Centenarian Plowman
International Plowing Match Royalty – Queen of the Furrow
SDG - June 18, 2015 - Fabienne Kagi, Stormont County’s Queen of the Furrow is moving it into overdrive with the International Plowing Match (IPM) only a few short months away.
For more than half a century the Queen of the Furrow has been an important part of the IPM. Encouraging leadership in the agricultural industry, the first coronation took place in Elgin County in 1960. This important tradition will continue at the 2015 Stormont Dundas Glengarry IPM and Rural Expo in Finch, September 22-26.
During their reign, Queens of the Furrow act as ambassadors promoting agriculture in their region and representing their county at the IPM each autumn. Young women 18 to 24 years of age are judged on their plowing skills, public speaking and on the outcome of an interview process.
Stormont’s current queen, Fabienne Kagi, represented her county at the 2014 IPM in Ivy, Simcoe County last September placing second runner up. She competed and retained her title at the county match in October and will vie for the provincial title once again in Finch at the 2015 IPM. Click here for more.
Recollections of a hundred-acre farm and the 1936 International Plowing Match
CORNWALL – May 22, 2015 - Farms were smaller, the International Plowing Match was smaller, but it was a really big deal when Stormont Dundas Glengarry hosted the 1936 IPM.
Garfield MacLennan was 11 years old when the first IPM was held in Eastern Ontario. The tented city and most of the plowing at that historic match were on his grandfather D.L. MacLennan's farm on South Branch Road north of Cornwall. "His name was Donald but everyone knew him as D.L."
Being only a boy, some memories are more vivid than others. Click here for more.
Tagwi Secondary School Students Build 140 Wooden Benches for 2015 IPM
AVONMORE – April 28, 2015 - There will be 1100-acres worth of rural fun and agricultural education at the International Plowing Match and Rural Expo, September 22 - 26. And, thanks to Tagwi Secondary students and a couple of local building supply companies,
visitors to Finch will have more places to sit and rest between the demonstrations, entertainment, vendors, and of course horse and tractor plowing.
Click here for more.
Chesterville Record – article by Carol Goddard
Finch Artist Laura Stevens Winning Artwork on Official IPM Poster
SDG Counties, Ontario – March 30, 2015 - The artwork for the official poster for the Stormont Dundas Glengarry 2015 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo (IPM) was unveiled in County Council Chambers today in Cornwall.
Local artist Laura Stevens of Finch, created the winning artwork selected from sixteen entries submitted to the art competition and received the grand prize of $1,500. Stevens studied art at the Sheridan Institute of Art, obtained a Bachelor degree in Fine Arts from Bishop’s University and also studied illustration at the University of Worcester in England. After several years in western Canada she has returned home to SDG with her husband and young family.
Click here for more.
Students Restoring 1948 Ford Tractor for IPM 2015
North Dundas, Ontario - January 28, 2015 - The shop has been cleared and transportation technology students at North Dundas District High School (NDDHS) are geared up for a very big project this semester - the restoration of a 1948 Ford 8N tractor for the Stormont Dundas & Glengarry 2015 International Plowing Match and Rural Expo next September.
“The students have already begun carefully disassembling, cleaning and tagging parts,” says transportation technology instructor, Andrew Whitton. And allowances have been made for students to use their own iPhones in the shop to search web sites and decode the tractor. They’ll also be using their phones and the shop’s iPad to take lots of pictures to help with the reassembly.
Click here for more.
2015 International Plowing Match & Rural Expo Parade Marshal announced in recognition of 50th anniversary of the red-maple leaf flag
Finch, Ontario – December 2, 2014 - In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the red-maple leaf flag, the Stormont Dundas & Glengarry 2015 International Plowing Match & Rural Expo has announced that Joan O’Malley will be the official parade marshal for the match which will be held in Finch, September 22-26, 2015.
O’Malley, the Ottawa woman who stitched the first red-maple leaf Canadian flag will lead the parade and open the match at the IPM site on September 22, 2015.
Click here for more.
IPM 2015 Kick-off Countdown
Finch, Ontario – October 27, 2015 - It’s official. Organizers of the 2015 Stormont Dundas & Glengarry International Plowing Match and Rural Expo (IPM) signed the host agreement with the Ontario Plowmen’s Association (OPA) Friday night in Finch. Melvin Switzer, OPA president, and a number of county directors from across the province were on hand for the signing.
There was a rally-like atmosphere in the banquet hall of the Finch arena as the Kick-off was indeed a countdown to the 2015 IPM which will take place a few kilometers north of Finch in less than 11 months.
IPM Chairman Jim Brownell reminded upwards of two hundred volunteers and community leaders who attended the event, that while the paper work is now in place, many volunteer hours and commitment to the event really began in early 2012. “When I was asked to be chair of the IPM committee in March 2012, shortly after the bid was accepted by the Ontario Plowmen’s Association, I can tell you there was already a dedicated group in place ready to make this IPM the best one yet,” he said after the signing was complete.
Click here for more.