James Witty, ploughing for England, is the 2025 World Conventional Ploughing Champion.
James, from East Lutton, near Malton in North Yorkshire won the World title and the Golden Plough trophy at the 70th World Ploughing Contest held near Prague in the Czech Republic on 5th & 6th September 2025.
This marks his second world title, having previously won the World Reversible Ploughing Championship in 2003. To win both World Conventional and World Reversible titles is a rare and remarkable achievement in the contest’s seven-decade history, as there are just three people who have accomplished this. James follows in the footsteps of his late father, Graeme, as being one of those people.
Forty-eight competitors representing 26 countries found ploughing conditions challenging during practice, due to a long spell of dry weather. However, a little rain during the week improved conditions for the stubble ploughing on the first day and heavy rain overnight softened the ground for grassland ploughing on day two.
James found himself under immense pressure on the first day, suffering a breakdown after ploughing started. It took almost an hour to fix damage to his plough depth wheel but he was allowed the same in extra time to complete his plot. Despite the setback, he delivered an impressive performance and was placed second, 7.5 points behind Stefan Steiner from Austria. On the second day, James returned to form and was placed 4th, just 2.5 points behind another former World Champion and the only other man to ever to take the two titles, Andrew Mitchell senior from Scotland.
In the World Reversible Ploughing Championship, England’s Ian Brewer saw his title hopes dashed after drawing one of the poorer plots on the field on the first day. He finished in 14th place on day one but delivered a strong comeback on the second day, finishing 3rd on the grassland and 9th overall. The Reversible title was won by Marco Angst from Switzerland.
Sue Frith, Chief Executive of the Society of Ploughmen praised the achievement: “This is a tremendous result for James Witty and for England. Usually, you can tell who is in contention for the title as they are medal winners on both days. However, this time there were different names in the top 3 placings on each day and with the points unannounced, we genuinely didn’t know who had won until the final moment. To say we were delighted when James was announced as World Champion is an understatement!”.James Witty will next compete in this year’s British National Ploughing at Allesley, Coventry on 11th and 12th October where he will aim to defend his British title and secure his place to represent England once again at next year’s World Ploughing Contest in Croatia.
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