Thousands of Ontarians are taking a tour through the Bruce County countryside on Day 1 of the International Plowing Match (IPM) near Walkerton. “We were two and a half years planning for this, and all the people have just taken a big sigh of relief, and yeah, it’s here. Beautiful weather. I don’t know how you get any better than this,” said 2026 IPM Bruce County Chair Gord Lang. 100 acres near Walkerton has been converted into a tent city showcasing Ontario agriculture, past and present. “Agriculture is the backbone of the country, if we didn’t have that, and running smoothly, we’d get pretty hungry. So yeah, it means a lot,” said Joe Benninger, visiting the IPM from nearby Formosa. One in nine Canadian jobs are in the agri-food industry, so it’s timely that thousands of school kids will be a part of this year’s annual agricultural showcase, many of them with no connection to farming. “Having an appreciation for agriculture where our food, fibre, and fuel comes from is the only requirement. Having that passion, and wanting to see a strong future for our agriculture, and our communities moving forward,” said Margaret Vincent, Ontario Federation of Agriculture representative for Bruce and Grey Counties. This is the fourth time in 50 years that the International Plowing Match has been held in Bruce County. Three of those matches held on the exact plot of land, hosting it over the next 5 days. “We’ve got such a great agriculture industry. And certainly Brockton is at center of that. We had the highest farm gate receipts of any municipality in Bruce County last year, so we are very dependent, and very supportive of our farmers here in Brockton,” said Municipality of Brockton Mayor Chris Peabody. Whether it’s a trip back in time, or to present day agriculture, Bruce County organizers are hoping attendance to this year’s edition of the International Plowing Match rebounds from recent ones, that have fallen below expectations. “Yeah, we’re really hoping for big crowds. Imagine the attendance may be down a little bit today, but we’re hoping as it warms up through the week here, it will get better and better. We got a nice week coming. So come on, and see us,” said Lang. “It’s very important for people to see how important farm living is, and farm work is. And our land, it’s sad to seeing so much farm land being developed into houses when they could be growing crops on it. There’s such a shortage of food,” said IPM visitor, Cathy Benninger from Formosa. “We know the value of agriculture and keeping things down to earth and protected. And we need to see all this stuff so it’s important to us,” said Theresa and Gord Coburn from Wiarton. The 2026 International Plowing Match near Walkerton runs Tuesday, Sept. 22 through Saturday, Sept. 26.
