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Carl,
I watched and shared this film many times. However the free streaming rights for the film have now expired. Might there be a way for DapNet to acquire a copy and make it available online as part of membership? I imagine that as an archival instructional piece it would be well cherished by the Dap community. Nick

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Erika: it has been lightly used 2x per year on small plots <5 acres. Last few years I’ve only used it once. I pull it with a 65hp IH and it handles it just not as well as I’d like. Of course depth affects that. A smaller model would be more versitile. Nick

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Pictures available herehttps://maine.craigslist.org/grd/d/12-unverferth-perfecta-ii/6389497382.html:
Nick

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Carl, will you have the harness in Cornish? I would like to take a look. Thanks, Nick

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Lizzy, we feed a broad range of horses a grain mix of either rolled oats, or spelt with crimped barley and alfalfa pellet to round out the protein. For those that need more we feed the same Nutrena Empower Boost product you do. We also top off the harder keepers/workers with ground flax meal for the added Omega 3 & 6 beneficial fats.

We’ve had good luck feeding minerals from Advanced Biological Concepts for 20+ years: http://www.abcplus.biz/

All our horses get a daily scoop of the ABC vitamin E and Selenium combo and the “Fortified” product. We used to feed this company’s free choice mineral system with 4-6 wall mounted feeders in every stall, but it became burdensome given our number of horses. The Fortified product is a daily pellet that incorporates the minerals we were feeding free-choice. There are a few different versions of the pellet allowing you to tailor the blend.

This is an added cost, for sure (including shipping), but we find a good supplement program rounds out a solid forage program and, like Erika, helps the horses to bloom. White salt and water included.

Good luck,
Nick

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Have had this thread in my mind over the past few days around my place. We keep a lot of horses, and while they aren’t new to me, owning/working draft horses is. I’m a well established routine guy and admittedly a bit stuck at times in how I do things. Horses are a great way to break one of that habit! Routine in safe handling techniques, harnessing, when feet are trimmed, or a feeding schedule may be beneficial, but other routine behaviors I see are not. I’ve definitely experienced “barn sour” behaviors resulting in the way I work my horses, and its amazing how simple changes, like those mentioned here, have great effect.

Its also amazing how easy it is to fall into simple routines that horses come to expect, then demand… Classic on my farm is the horse that is ready to go outside in the morning before others that stomps, paws or kicks. Its natural to fall into the trap of getting that horse outside first, which just reinforces those behaviors when what that horse needs to do is stand and wait. I see this amongst the Boarders who keep horses with us too. “My horse was agitated/uncomfortable, so I put him in his stall.” Pretty soon I’ve got a horse that doesn’t want to be outside when the wind blows. Mentally this horse is building a dependency on the comfort routine its Owner uses when around, which I have to handle the rest of the week.

Being a routine guy I benefit from the feedback above for sure. Including changes in feed ration with work load. Applying simple changes to my routine has been fun and helpful. Thanks.

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Thinking about this more –
All those listed are pricey. You should be able to find a decent ground driven drill for under $1,000. Barn finds much less. Know anyone that gets into PA and OH for the spring auctions? That’s really where you’ll find the best priced, smaller drills suited to draft power. You could always ask a dealer who combs the auctions to look for you. BW McNair helped me find a spreader once.

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Tyler,
Didn’t know but Neighbor sold that particular drill recently. Here is one similar at Rene J. Fournier in Swanton, VT:

http://www.rjfeq.com/inventory.asp#/?fsucriteria=;category=Drills and Caddies;page=1;items=20;sort=0;wid=1;disposition=any&fsuid=f0b0f677-aff2-4ab5-b88b-2dbab7e90290

They have an annual auction every May and August. Appears they have 4 GD drills right now. 3 of them seem to be IH510. Some folks like them, some hate them. The one linked above looks to be the smallest.

Good luck,
Nick

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Tyler: I’ll do some more digging and revert

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I also know of a drill near me in southern Maine.
McCormick Deering 10′ with grass, seed and fert boxes. Kept inside and maintained. Out of use a few years. Nice drill. Happy to direct you to Owner if interested. Nick

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Donn,
If I have a pickup attachment to sell you’ll be the first I call.

Have a friend that grows quite a few acres of peas with oats for trellace. He has a larger combine and larger Clipper cleaner so he can separate the peas – not too bad as they’re very different seeds. Word is there’s now a winter pea, so the seed is becoming more interesting…

[NTrout]

Pickups are hard to find. I drove into Ontario for mine. Have two I hope to build one from, and then keep it fixed to a second ALLCrop machine for specific harvests like barley, which could be pre-mowed, field dried, then picked up later. I’ve attached a schematic for an AC66 Draper pickup. The pickup on the machine shot isnt mine.

Nick

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[NTrout]

Donn,

Mowers do have rock guards, sorry I shouldn’t use that term as interchangable. The crop lifters I refer to attach to the cutting head with the exisiting gaurd INSIDE it on a the AllCrop cutter bar. They replace a few of the guards in order across the head. They are springed back towards the machine so that as you raise and lower the head they follow the grade. In the case of a downed/lodged crop they aid in lifting the crop up to draper. Not sure the adjustable angle on a sickle bar mower could be 1) lifted enough, and 2) canted forward enough for these to work. I also wonder about the added drag they might add, but pressumably using lifters you’d be traveling with the head hovering above the ground a bit more. Have a look.

Nick

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Donn,
My machines have crop lifters, or rock guards. Familiar with these? Springed fingers that come off the cutting head and enter the crop before knives. Knives run through the fingers. I’ve often wondered why mowers don’t have them. All crops also had pick up attachments so that certain crops could be mowed, field dried and run through the machine later. I have a pickup attachment but don’t have it set up.

[NTrout]

Jada,

I don’t handle beans, but the machine I use for small grains will – an Allis Chalmers “All Crop” 60. This is a small, pull-type combine that hooks to a tractor PTO, or a power forecart. It has no engine of its own. Different from a self-propelled that you sit in and drive through your crop. My machine is a 1950 and I bought 2 for $500 to get one running machine without much effort. A machine this size can handle up to 10 acres a day, but conditions need to be spot-on, and machine running right. It only has a 60″ wide cutting head (AC 60). I use it for grain plots <5 acres. People also use these machines for stationary threshing in the barn if they’ve hand cut, or used a grain binder for field harvest. Getting harder, but you can still find these machines in the country side. John Deere, and Oliver also made pull-types, but the All Crop was most popular, so parts are still available.

If by “small – mid scale” you are >5acres you may want to consider a self-propelled machine. Massey Ferguson model Super35 is a nice machine with 8′ wide harvesting head. I CANT speak to their effectiveness with beans… It has an engine to contend with, but is otherwise pretty straight forward. I know a few folks that use them and really like them. Again, John Deere has some options in this category too. All are antiques and require some loving to keep them going. Still, many do as good, or better a job than their more modern counterparts. From a machine like this you get right into the bigger combines that can barely turn around on an acre. And ALL of those that I’ve listed will need to be kept indoors and that requires a building big enough to cover them = half the battle.

Yesterday’s Tractor/combine forum is a good place to search for threads on handling certain crops, which machine may be better/worse, warnings, etc. You might also find someone in your area with a machine who could custom harvest for you.

As far as further cleaning your beans goes I use a Clipper 1B seed cleaner. Again, don’t handle beans, but I have all the screens for beans. AT Ferrell makes these, and that company still makes Clipper seed cleaners. You can find small grain cleaners like this online, Craigslist, etc. and they are great. Paid $250 for mine (new screens $85 each!). Lots of bigger, fancier options, including larger Clipper models, but you can cut your teeth at a scale like this.

I know there are others far more experienced than me in this forum that hopefully will sound off for you. If nothing else, my answers could be an example of getting into harvesting, threshing, winnowing without too much expense, or experience and discovering some tools for added success.

Good luck,
Nick

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