By Ben Philip

Two Scottish farmers are preparing to go into the field of battle against the world's best ploughers.

Dave Carnegie, 75 and Andrew Mitchell, 61 are preparing for the World Ploughing Championships in Minnesota, later this month.

In 1996, Mr Carnegie from Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire, became the first Scotsman to win the prestigious title and he's hoping to re-claim his crown.

Meanwhile, his co-competitor Andrew from Forfar, Angus has won the reverse ploughing category six times at the agricultural spectacle.

The men have spent an eye-watering £16,000 to ship their tractors and plough over to the USA.

It's the first time the agricultural event has been held in the US since 1988.

The world's top ploughers from more than 30 countries will descend on the fields of America's mid-west to prove their craft.

To qualify, competitors need to win their national competition.

A panel of judges will review each competitor on strict criteria including accuracy and attention to detail.

Mr Carnegie, said: "This will be my eighth time ploughing in the world championships, but I've on;y won it once, so it's not too good a record.

"But we're hoping to go out and have a good go at it anyway.

"it's proving fairly expensive for the two of us to go to America and back.

"The cost seems to be climbing. There are some factors that weren't thought about initially.

"But you have to have a go. You qualify to go, it's a challenge and you need competitors to make a competition."

Mr Mitchell said he had retired from competing in 2016 but after catching the "bug" again, it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

The event will be held on Saturday August 31.