The cream of the crop of Scottish ploughing are heading to Estonia to represent Scotland at the World Ploughing Championships.

Brian Baxter and Andrew Mitchell Snr flew out this week to Tartu, in Estonia for their practice days ahead of the competition on Friday and Saturday, August 16 and 17.

Brian, from Forfar, is current Scottish Reversible champion and Andrew, also from Forfar, is the current Scottish Conventional champion. This is not Andrew's first rodeo, having competed at world level in both the Reversible and Conventional styles before and has won at world level before too.

Their tractors and ploughs left Scotland last week.

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Brian spoke to the Scottish Farmer ahead of leaving for Estonia, and explained how honoured he feels to be representing Scotland at this level, on the world stage.

He said: “I started off ploughing with vintage tractors and it was my dad that had the notion for the more modern side of things, so things just progressed really.

“I’m ploughing in the butts world style now, and Andrew is taking part in the conventional competition.

“There are over 20 countries competing in Estonia, and there are some serious competitors, so it’s a huge deal and we just hope we can do ourselves and Scotland proud.”

Brian also explained how their trip plays out in the run up to the competition itself.

“We will have two days of pre-practice this week, before the event opens on Monday. There will then be three days of official practice, before a rest day, then the competition will take place next Friday and Saturday.

“Andrew’s competed on this scale a few time’s so that’s good for me – he knows his stuff and can keep me right!”