[Crabapple Farm]

You need to leave the floor open in the driveway where the wagon goes; if your width is less than your length, then you lose less floor space to this driveway if it runs crosswise, while maintaining full access.
That said, our neighbor’s barn has the entrance on the gable end facing the road. There is an older attached barn perpendicular to it, so possibly they built it this way to tie into the haytrack in that mow.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

For up to about half an acre, I would recommend an actual flail. They really do work, though you have to make it correctly and use it correctly (like any hand tool). The swingle needs to spin freely around the staff, or else it is really frustrating. I like a light wood for the staff (alder, hazel, or an old broom handle) and something heavy and dense for the swingle (hornbeam, maple, or oak). My current design isn’t fancy, but it works well. The baling twine needs replacement now and again. Lucky we’ve got lots. The wire I use is 12.5g High Tensile fence wire. We had it on hand, I trust it not to fail, but it is a pain to work with. Needs to wrap around the staff groove tight enough that it can’t come off, especially if you’re going to thresh with other people (two people on a pile is nice, three only works if you’re all good at the waltz).
For use, don’t use the common definition of the word “flail” as a guide. Stand upright, hold the staff horizontal, and swing the swingle around the end of the staff so that it lands flat on the pile. At no time should any part be raised up high. Like using a scythe, you should be able to do it all day.

An All-crop definitely works for beans, though we’ve stopped using ours for beans. Several reasons: I’ve had too many break downs with our All-Crop, which has made me reluctant to fire it up (what’s going to break this time?). We’ve gotten into breeding beans, and it’s too hard to clean out the all-crop to know with confidence where an odd-colored bean came from. Some varieties tend to get damaged in the combine, either splitting in the threshing or getting crimped both under the apron chain and the grain auger. Possibly a better-condition machine with tighter tolerances wouldn’t have those issues.
I’m working on rebuilding an old Clipper (1A?? appears to be the original model), but for now we pour from bucket to bucket on a windy day, then use hand screens.
I would not recommend threshing and winnowing small grains by hand (and we’ve tried). But beans are actually quite reasonable to do that way.
We hand-pull our plants, windrow them on landscape fabric to dry, then load them on a haywagon to bring them back to the barn for threshing (or thresh in the field on a tarp).
Donn, historically, there used to be “Bean pullers” – a horse drawn machine that undercut the row then windrowed two to four rows together. I imagine something similar could be rigged on a cultivator, using a side knife to undercut, and a swathboard like attachment to windrow. Then you’d really want that pick-up head on your combine, though.

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[Crabapple Farm]

Because of the cross grain, elm resists splitting very well. However, it can twist and warp quite a bit with moisture changes – probably not a problem in this instance. If it stays wet, it holds up very well – some of Venice is built on Elm pilings (under salt water). But in an equipment-that-lives-outside setting, expect it to lose strength relatively quickly. Freshly dead elm doesn’t split, but if it’s dead for over a year it splits much easier. Standing dead elms start having branches snap and drop after 18 months or so (we’ve got a lot of dead elm around here from Dutch elm disease), so I wouldn’t trust a double tree that had been living outside for much more than that, unless well oiled or painted.

[Crabapple Farm]

One thing to bear in mind with any 3ph forecart is the lever action – with a 2 wheel cart the wheels are the pivot point, so any weight lifted in the rear of the cart is going to have to be held down by the tongue (putting lift at the neckyoke). Some tongue lift is okay, and a D-ring is better from all I hear, but too much could be problematic. Hydraulics can make your job easier than a lever type 3ph (like I&J makes), but don’t make things more comfortable for your team. A boom pole (because it carries the weight so far back) doesn’t seem like a good fit to me for a 2-wheel forecart, unless the weight on it is pretty minimal. I don’t know how much lift you need to move your chicken coops, but most logging carts (like the Barden design) are designed to lift the end of a log off the ground a bit when skidding (but you need to be able to hitch close).

[Crabapple Farm]

The revival of this thread, and a recent conversation with a friend about traditional methods of planting wheat, brought back to my mind an interesting passage about making raised beds with a plow. The passage is in regards to wheat, not potatoes. It took me a couple readings to realize that he was talking about raised beds. There was apparently some difference of opinion at the time regarding the merits of sowing into raised beds.
This is from The Modern Husbandman, or, the Practice of Farming, Vol. IV by William Ellis, 1744.

“A nice observation, on the sowing Wheat-seed in three and four Bout-lands in Middlesex and Buckinghamshire. – In last Month I have observed, that their Lands are, for the most Part, of a stiff, loamy, clayey Nature in Middlesex, and lie wet and flattish; which obliges their farmers to sow their Wheat-seed in a Manner most agreeable to their Earth and its Situation. For this Purpose, they altogether make Use of the Swing-plough, that turns up a Thorough or Furrow very shallow, or very deep, in three or four Bout-lands, which, about Acton, they sow Broad-cast, and plough the Wheat-seed in, leaving little, or none, in the Water-thoroughs; because, in gathering up the Earth to leave a large Drain for carrying off the Waters, the Seed is gathered up by the Plough, and laid to the Bout-lands. Now, they are obliged to leave large Water-thoroughs, to keep their Wheat dry, though it causes them to lose, I believe, more than one Foot of Ground in seven, throughout a Field; even more than they do in Aylesbury Vale, by sowing their Wheat in Ridge Broad-lands; and more than those Farmers do between Amersham and Uxbridge, though they sow their Wheat in three and four Bout-lands, as I am going to shew. After their Ground is got into a fine hollow Tilth (which to effect, they plow oftener than I ever knew any other Country do) they plow it, the last Time, with their two-wheel Wood-chip Plough into three or four Bout-lands, and commonly sow two Bushels and a Half of pirky or Lammas Wheat (but for the most Part, the former) over each Acre throughout a Field, by the Broad-cast Throw, which spreads the Seed over all the Ground, as it lies in the rough Condition the Plough left it in. When this is done, they immediately harrow all so flat down, that the Seed grows in the Ridge-part of the Land, as well as in all the Thoroughs; and thus they lose little or no Ground at all, and yet there remains a Sort of Water-thorough for the Wets to drain off, which seldom causes the Wheat, in this Part of Buckinghamshire, to suffer that grows in it, because their Land here is not of that very stiff Nature as to hold water, like that in Middlesex.
… In chalky Soils, Wheat-seed is commonly sown early in this Month [Oct], that the Wheat may get good Head against the frosty Season. Here some sow their Seed in two Bout-lands, others in Broad-lands; the Advocates for the first say it is best done so, because, in this Posture, the Wheat-seed cannot well be buried as in Broad-lands, and that, as one Thorough shelters another, the Winds have not so much Power to hurt it, as in Broad-lands. Others alledge, that Wheat, lying in the Stitch-shape, lies too high and dry, and is much more exposed to the Violence of Winds and Frosts than that sowed in Broad-lands; for, when it lies in Broad-lands, it remains and grows, in an even, low, snug Posture, the most of all out of the Power of Frosts, Winds, and Droughts.”

I have not yet tried to find pictures of plows of the era to make better sense of his recommendations – he mentions Swing-plough, two wheel Wood-chip plough, two wheel Wheat-stitch plough, two wheel Pea-stitch plough, and Foot-plough in this section, and others elsewhere.

[Crabapple Farm]

I’ve got a spreader skeleton at my place, Tom, if you want to scavenge the steel wheels off it. Don’t know if they’d fit. I do know they would need a patch welded in in the spot they’re rotted out from sitting too long.
Not necessarily cheaper than an online source, but Mr Tire in Plainfield might be able to get them, which would save shipping. They’ve been able to quote me on other ag tires. There might be a place even closer to you, too.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

This is an issue I’ve been struggling with for years. Unfortunately, I haven’t myself succeeded in finding those systems that you are looking for to give animal power a “leg up” over the tractor.
For a long time I had oxen, and since their training wasn’t at a level that I was comfortable with for cultivation, I thought of them as primarily for secondary tillage, cover cropping, and woods work. While I did use them in the woods in the winter, during the summer, the speed and ease of the tractor meant that they didn’t get used much for fieldwork.
Last year we got a pony, and this past winter sent the oxen away. I’ve shifted my own thinking, and am considering the pony a specialist for cultivation – with a walk behind cultivator he can get into places the tractor can’t (like between crops too tall/big to drive over). My current feeling is that I need to find/design tasks that the tractor can’t do as well or at all. The struggle is keeping the animals in good condition (physical and mental) when sidelined by the tractor, so that there isn’t the training issue inhibiting their use when you want them.
If things go well this summer with the pony, we’ll be looking for a larger team, and then the horses may move in on other tasks (tillage and haying). But time is a serious issue, that I haven’t figured out.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

Having a pony a little smaller than yours, and having seen the All in One in person but not used it, I would say that as a general tool, your pony could do a lot with it. As far as ripping through rolled cover crops, I think that depends on how dense the residue is, what your soil is like, and how deep you are trying to get. I think for that task, a slightly heavier tool like an I&J Walking Plow, Pony cultivator, or the new One Horse Toolbar (see thread from a month or so ago) might stay in the ground better, and all are of a scale that a Pony can pull. I’ve been debating the merits of these tools in my head for a while now, but haven’t decided on one yet, so can’t give experience based advice (so far my pony’s just been using old walking cultivators).
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

This is the tractor that I use in my vegetables, though in this country it’s manufactured under the “Tuff-Bilt” brand. It is a more versatile tractor than an ACG, though superficially similar.
While I struggle a lot with having multiple types of power on our farm, and find that the ease and speed of tractors means that I don’t use animals as much as I want, I think that this specific tractor is about the best mechanical option available for ecologically minded farming (which is why I bought one). The US manufacturer is planning on making an electric version available soon.
Some day, I’d like to be able to sell mine, and exclusively utilize animal power in my fields, but I am a few years away from that point.
I think that with the opening of trade and tourism, a lot that is good in Cuban society and farming is going to be threatened. If they are going to start using tractors, which I think is probably inevitable, this is a better tractor than anything available from the big manufacturers.
It is small, lightweight, easy to fix, comparatively inexpensive, and well-suited to small scale intensive production methods. I was pleased to see that the design is apparently open source, too. When the John Deere dealerships open up, then Cuba is doomed.

-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

One option with a cultimulcher/roller harrow that I have considered but not implemented is to build a custom roller with larger diameter packer wheels (or rubber wheels) on the outside edges to run in the pathways, like the Guide Cones in raised bed 3ph cultivator systems. The larger diameter packers would hug the bed sides and keep it tracking well, I think. Don’t know anyone who’s done it.
If you want to go down the custom fabrication path, you could even incorporate adjustable hilling disks in front of the wheels to help build and maintain the raised bed. I’m not sure how to get those disks out of the way quickly and easily for transport, though.

[Crabapple Farm]

Individual animals don’t necessarily follow their breed tendencies for personality, so try to assess them as individuals as well as you can.
That said, Angus as a breed have had very little selection over the generations for tractability. So it is likely that one or both would end up being difficult.

An old timer, Mernie Clark, once told me to always look at a calf’s forehead whorl as an indication of temperament. What you want for oxen (or milk cows, for that matter) is a nice distinct whorl centered between the eyes or a little lower. Not a definitive indicator, but he said that he saw plenty of calves that he turned down because of the forehead whorl turn into impossible teams when they grew up.
Interestingly, Temple Grandin has found the whorl – temperament connection to be statistically verified:
http://www.grandin.com/references/cattle.whorl.temperament.html
http://www.grandin.com/references/abstract.html

What I’ve seen in my non-statistically relevant beef herd is that most of Galloway crosses have double whorls or lines. Low fear response, but not interested in me or my opinion. High whorls in the angus crosses does seem to correspond to more jumpy animals.
There’s a whole pattern of hair whorls on cattle that people have said are indicators of all sorts of things, like the escutcheon area whorl indicating milking ability (fat, protein, duration), and the back top whorl indicating fertility and vigor. Best theory is that whorl placement and shape is hormonally regulated, and so tied to other traits.

Take it with a grain of salt, but it’s another thing to think about.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

A couple years ago we had a teamster working with us with her team of Belgians. We didn’t do much of it, but we did cultivate 32″ rows with one of her Belgians and a walking cultivator. It was definitely feasible. I think 30″ with a fjord would not be a problem. I know folks doing 30″ rows with Suffolks. We now have a fairly small pony that we used a little last year for cultivation and hope to use more this year, on 30″ rows.

[Crabapple Farm]

He’s in New Castle, PA. I’m guessing the video was taken a while ago, not last week.
It doesn’t look as fine-tuned as the Anny’s All in One, but it seems to have functional adjustment ability, is less than half the price, and is adaptable to readily available components.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

Let’s try that video again…

• This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by Crabapple Farm.

[Crabapple Farm]

Thinking about it while feeding hay, I wanted to add a couple points.
Is he showing signs of fearing you? A fearful animal is dangerous.
As Carl pointed out in a different thread recently, dominance is not the same as leadership. While an ox that tries to dominate you is dangerous and unacceptable, what you need to establish is leadership even more than dominance, and excessive reprimands to maintain dominance can compromise your ability to maintain leadership.
I still think a nose ring might be a way to proceed, as long as it is used as a tool to clarify leadership and not a punishment to subdue.
Also, ears are another sensitive point to smack when he lowers his head, outside of the language of cattle but clearly understood by them.
Make sure in your daily chore routine that he is following your leadership in order to access food. Part of that, is not putting yourself between him and food, but making you be the path to and provider of food.

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