Marcus Larson/News-Register##LaDene Scott and her husband Jonathan Jude plow their section of field during the 2015 Farm Fest. The annual event returns this Saturday.

Draft horses, vintage equipment featured at Farm Fest

Draft horses will be hitched to vintage plows for a competition highlighting Farm Fest, the Yamhill Valley Heritage Center’s annual celebration of the area’s agricultural past.

The festival will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the center, just southwest of McMinnville at 11276 S.W. Durham Lane. Admission is free for children 12 and under and $5 for everyone else.

The event will also feature lumber milling, blacksmithing, horseshoeing and wheel setting demonstrations; antique equipment displays, both horse-drawn and mechanized; an Agriculture in Art photo contest; tours of the museum and 1880s Hutchcroft School; children’s period games and exhibits; period music; and food for purchase.

Farm Fest will begin at 10 a.m with a flag-raising ceremony conducted by the United Veterans Honor Guard.

More than 25 teams of mules and draft horses will stage a plowing competition from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The field will then be sown with oats, which will be harvested Aug. 13-14, during the center’s companion Harvest Fest event.

The Oregon Draft Horse Breeders Association is hosting the competition, which measures the straightness of furrows and tightness of turns. Owners will be on hand to inform visitors about the animals and their work.

A parade of teams is scheduled for 2 p.m., immediately preceding the awards ceremony.