Hello from Finland…

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  • August 2, 2009 at 5:35 pm #40711
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hello..:)
    we have a small holding in eastern Finland, around 8 hectares of forest and 5 hectares of field. At the moment we have have 10 sheep a clatter of chickens and a couple of cats, our plan for next year is 2 calfs to raise for milking, we are getting an eastern Finnish breed as they tend to be smaller than the commercial milking cow and we prefer to keep the traditional finnish breed.
    we would love to have a working horse…maybe one day! we are self sufficient in growing our own veggies and also animal feed, its hard work oh but worth all the aching muscles!
    we dont have any machinary so we help our neighbours with hay work ect..and in return they cut our crops.
    Oh and by the way we are having a glorious summer here, we have the hay in and are now starting to harvest our veggies and collect berries and mushrooms from the forest:):) Life is good….:)
    Greetings..Suomi.

    August 2, 2009 at 6:12 pm #53285
    Gabe Ayers
    Keymaster

    Welcome to DAP – glad you found it. Summer has be different in each part of this country, mostly worse in different ways in most places. The one word description is “extreme” when it comes to weather.

    There is an effort within this group to develop connections with other horse loggers throughout the world and I wonder if you would know anyone there that is doing the work of horse logging?

    Thanks for joining us and helping us find others.

    August 2, 2009 at 9:37 pm #53286
    simon lenihan
    Participant

    jason, i have contacts in finland / sweden / estonia / and other european countries who log with horses, i will make contact and ask for their input.
    simon

    August 3, 2009 at 4:04 am #53291
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hi Simon, If you know of people here in Finland using work horses to log in the forest I would love to contact them.
    we have a small forest compared to most people so the work horse is a perfect solution for us,also as I have already said we dont use machinary so at the moment rely on help from other farmers so the introduction of a work horse to work the land is our ideal….. its just taking time getting there!
    thanks for the welcome:)

    August 3, 2009 at 10:10 am #53289
    Rick H.
    Participant

    Hi from central Maine. I have a question about the cattle you mentioned. I work in the artificial insemination business here. I have Finnish Red semen available to use from Finland. Is this the breed of cattle you refered to about getting? The ones we have here are mostly red with some having a little white too. It’s a medium to smallish size cow that’s a little bit heavier built than most dairy cattle. I have seen several cows that are half Finnish Red and half another breed and they seem like a good cow. Maybe you could start a pair of calves for oxen? Thanks for any thoughts on the cattle.

    August 3, 2009 at 6:20 pm #53287
    simon lenihan
    Participant

    hi suomi,
    Miika afelt is a professional horselogger who work in and around helksinki, he designed the forwarder we now operate. Henry rawstrone is a horse logger who moved to finland from the uk a few years back, i still think he runs horse logging courses and would be a good contact for horses should you decide to purchace in the future. Henrys has a website and he will be able to give you miikas number, [ http://www.heikkilahorsefarm.com ]
    regards, simon

    August 4, 2009 at 9:13 am #53292
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hi Simon, Thanks for the Finnish link, Ive looked at his website and will contact him.

    Rick, there are three types of Finn cow, the western which is red/brown, the eastern (which we plan on getting) called ” Kyyto” (there should be dots over the O but my keyboard doesnt have it!!) they are red and white and the Lapp cow which tends to be white.
    They are as you say a medium to small breed and very,very lovely! we are keen on keeping traditional breeds of all our animals, as one thing is for sure they are really suited to our cold and long winters!
    Maybe you need a trip to Finland to get a look at the real thing!!:):) welcome here any time:)
    Ok Id better head back out to the garden to harvest more veggies…:)

    Suomi.

    August 4, 2009 at 9:41 am #53290
    Rick H.
    Participant

    Hi Suomi, Thanks for the reply. What we have, we refer to as the Finnish Red. They are mostly a deep red color with some white. I hope you have a good summer and thanks again.

    August 5, 2009 at 1:51 pm #53288
    bivol
    Participant

    Hi Suomi!

    you said you’d get two cows for milking, but you could also use them for limited fieldwork, athough judging by the size of your holding, you could sport horses as well as oxen, and ofcourse working cows.

    anyway, no matter what animal you intend to use, i think here you’ll find all the advice and help you need!

    Marko

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