[gwpoky]

Carl,

I must say that video spooks me just a bit, though most of what he did is currently being done, just not with the Star Trek computer screen. I know guys that control their irrigation systems with their cell phones, my brother in law runs about 1500 acres and has a hands free set up in his tractor (he is also dangerously over weight, needs a C-PAP to get any sleep, and my sister still needs to have a full time off farm job to make ends meet. According to him, he and I make about the same income, I on about 128 acres and him on 1500, I with no operating loan, him with about a $650,000 loan each year. Now don’t get me wrong him and I are very close and good friends he understands what we are doing and we have great conversations he says he sometimes wishes he could be as simple as us, but it is what it is and rock is rolling down the hill. We have taken the humanity out of so many things I hope we can turn the ship before it sinks.

On a happy note I am extremely excited about this year our farm is turning a corner, heading towards our goal of farming full time, and people want what we have and appreciate what we are trying to do. I hope all of you are well as we anticipate spring with all is spender.

Take Care.

[gwpoky]

This is an answer I gave to the question of:

George, I admire and envy that you farm most of your ground with the horses. And I don’t want you to be offended at this question; Are you actually making a living, with NO outside income, NONE, on a hundred acres that you farm with the horses? If you truly are, I am very interested in knowing how you do this. While I despise that hardworking wage earners are paying the subsidies that go to multimillionaires that bitch about others getting welfare, I also see the operating costs of farming and ranching today. Everything is out of balance and there is some truth to everything that has been posted on this thread. Again, not looking for a fight here and don’t want anyone to take offense, but I don’t believe that anyone that isn’t amish can support a family on a hundred acres of traditional crops without another income of some sort. And if you are working another job, how in the world would you find time to farm a hundred acres with the horses?? Have a good day folks.

My Answer:

No offence taken, I will try and explain our current business “plan” and why it is the way it is and feel free to give me a a call sometime if you have any questions at 715-821-6775.

Our farm is a work in progress and yes we do, currently, have outside income as we do not want to take on debt, I am a Farrier, my wife trains horses and gives riding lessons, she also has a bus route during the school year. Our farm currently provides about 50% of our income after it pays for itself. Our farm income comes from our meat CSA, direct meat sales, and horse boarding. We are currently running our farm at 30-40% capacity as we are building our flock of sheep and our heard’s of beef and hogs. With our budget and business plan we are well on our way of being able to, financially, farm full time in the next two years as we have made some huge marketing strides in the last year.

As far as using horses as our main source of traction, time is actually not that big of a factor, especially with the advent of some of the modern horse drawn equipment (Thanks to Dris and many other advocates). This year we have added an I&J Heavy duty PTO cart and I&J 9′ mower to our line of equipment which will greatly increase our efficacy, as far as time goes. Diversification is the key to success on a modern small horse powered farm. We are a grass based farm which eases our labor requirements. Our farm land in a nut shell: 50% owned 50% rented at a total of about 100 acres (we also currently have a free summer lease of a 28 acre pasture that our ewes pasture during the summer so 128 acres used total), this years rotation will be: 55+/- acres of hay, 7 acres of oats, 3 acres of corn, 30+/- acres of pasture at home and 28 five miles north.

There is a quick run down, as I said we are only running at about 35% stocking rate, depending on what lifestyle your want, and we love ours, you can make a good life farming with horses on 100+/- acres, you can do it with even less if you do it with a market garden as your main source of farm income because it takes less feed/grazing ground than our meat animal base.

Hope this give you a good idea of what we are up to, it can be done one step at a time.

Any DAPNET Thoughts?

[gwpoky]

This has become an interesting conversation. I just want put a few things out there so folks know where I come from, you can go to http://www.walkerfarmscsa.info to get a bit of an idea. I am a coming 34 years old, we farm 90%+ with horses (still bale with a Allis WD and use a small skid loader to load the spreader) on about 100 acres half owned half rented. Just to clarify, I am not anti-tractor or anti-technology, I just believe in the use of appropriate technology and the point that “just because we can do something does not mean we should” I do not think everyone should farm using horses, though I believe more can then can’t (more should and more are). I believe we need way more perennials and less annuals (currently in the US it is about 20% perennial to 80% annual, that needs to be flipped to 80% perennial to 20% annual). I could go on, but most of you understand what I am saying here. Thanks for the great posts.

[gwpoky]

It got cancelled, but I had some students aproach me during my farrier class that they want the class and the head of the animal science department wants the class, we just need to advertize better.

[gwpoky]

Donn,

You said it, and you said is simple and well. thanks for sharing

[gwpoky]

I have a Yanmar out of a refer unit and I have a Tumble bug round bale mover, well on the way. 🙂 We currently hire a neighbor to round bale first crop on a 30 acre field of ours, but if and when he retires from this I would like to be ready. This year we will be haying about 55 acres so we purchased a Heavy duty I&J cart and I&J 9′ mower so the round baler will have to wait until next year, but I would like to start building the cart as I think I can do it without too much expense as I already have the motor. I am not much of an engineer so putting together a plan is the hardest part. I was thinking of using a shorten running gear as the base, build a platform and then go from there.

Thanks for all the input.

[gwpoky]

From what I am finding the Krone and the M&W out of IA as far as HP requirements seem to be the best options. I am going to see what I can put together with this Yanmmar Diesel I have in the shop, the torque should be helpful.

[gwpoky]

I think this is interesting, because I was under the impression that I was going to need a minimum of 40 to 45 hp motor to run just the baler. Does anyone know which brands/models require the least amount of power, Krone seems to be one good one, any others? We currently have a friend custom round bale for us when we need it, but he is not sure how many more years he will keep his equipment. His baler is a New Holland that does a 4X5 bale that he runs on a 90 hp Kabota tractor, I would like to look into something that can do a 4×4 bale and be pulled by four horses. I would like to get some plans together to start building a motorized PTO cart next winter looking at putting it on a shortened up running gear. I have a 25+ hp Yanmar Diesel motor, out of a refer unit, sitting in my shop, and I wonder if that could do the job, or I could get a hold of an 45 hp Allis Chalmers motor out of a WD45. Thought?

Donn, what where your thoughts on the performance of the baler behind your cart?

Thank you

[gwpoky]

WOW! I missed that at HPD, running a round baler with a 20 hp motor. Bob do you have any more information on setting up a cart like that ie the clutch/belt system for power transfer?

Thanks,
George

[gwpoky]

Sorry, I talked to John, darn touch pad 😕

[gwpoky]

Interesting, I talmed to John in MI and he thinks he was going to move towards the use of a small moter rather than ground drive. We are purchasing a used I&J heavy duty cart and mower.

Take care

[gwpoky]

Here are a couple pictures, sorry not the best lighting.

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[gwpoky]

I might be able to deliver this cart, depending on your location. The three point hitch is handy.

[gwpoky]

This is the news story you can also Google for an article.

[gwpoky]

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

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