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Story: Arable farming

Ploughing with a team of horses

Video file

This farmer is using a six-horse team and a three-furrow plough in the Kaiapoi district of Canterbury in the early 1950s. By this time tractors had replaced horse teams throughout the country, but this farmer considered that the old method grew a higher yield of crops.

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Archives New Zealand - Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga

Reference: Pictorial Parade 14. National Film Unit, 1953

Permission of Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga must be obtained before any re-use of this material.

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How to cite this page

Sue Zydenbos, Arable farming – Ploughing and harvesting, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/17567/ploughing-with-a-team-of-horses (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Sue Zydenbos, published 1 March 2009.