[gwpoky]

Here’s what went down:-) First of all I want to again thank this community for all your input and support, I lean on you all many days for encouragement and incite and have never been disappointed, Thank you. For the last five years we have been pretty much all horse powered, with the help of a neighbors tractor once and awhile. We purchased a small skidsteer which has help quilt a bit and ended up getting a Allis Chalmers WD from a customer of mine this is my “stationary power” for the most part and as we move through this stage of our farming (having to have a significant off farm income, I am a full time Farrier) and into the next, as our CSA continues to grow and farming become more of our living. Currently the WD is our “insurance” policy and I hope it gets little use and even less as time moves on. I believe strongly in the great value draft power can and should play in our modern society. I aim to be an example in my community of what is possible. Thanks again for everything, I hope the harvest finds you all safe.

[gwpoky]

Harvey,

Can you post some pictures of your cant and explain it a little more it sounds very interesting.

thank you

[gwpoky]

Harvey,

Could you post picture of your cart and explain it a little more, it sounds very interesting.

Thanks

[gwpoky]

From what I can see you should be able to use it behind your cart. I use a wheel rake but mine has two wheels on the rear instead of one. Good luck, if you go with it post some pics of it is action.

[gwpoky]

Well, for the time being I have compromised and bought a small skid steer to help clean pens, load the spreader, unload rounds, and other odds and ends. Though it will not fix our haying problem it should relieve some stress on the other end of things. We shall see.

[gwpoky]

50+/- of which only 15 are owned, balance is currently rented. 16 ewes, 2 beef cows, 5-8 hogs, 40 layers, 5 to 600 broiler/year 4 Belgians, 2 lesson horses, 2 riding horse, and we board 15-18 horses depending…..oh and 2 useless goats. We sell most of our meat through our CSA. We make about 50% of our house hold income off the farm I am also a full time Farrier and do a little independent crop insurance adjusting when needed, my wife drives school bus in the winter. The long term goal is to farm full time and shoe a few horses.

[gwpoky]

Kevin, I would love to get the I&J set up, but for 9 to 10K (forecart and mower) it is way out of my price range, I could buy a tractor and run it for years on that kind of money (I know money is not the only reason to do something, but we are running a business and have to take it into account). As much as I love working my horses my desire to farm is greater than my desire to farm with horse, but I am not sure I could bare to let one of my teams go, we will see.

[gwpoky]

Thank you all for your comments, I know I have talked about this before on here, but it always becomes more pronounced when there is hay on the ground. My neighbor is a good person and I teach the farrier science short course with him at UWFR, I just want to make sure I am pulling my weight. Thanks again.

[gwpoky]

Yikes, we could use a little rain now. We have about half of first crop done, but 20 acres will have to wait until after the neighbors daughter grad party.

Jay I love the Kicker rack, I just cut half the back off and mounted a hitch further back for the loader and I can put it back on if we need to put bales in it. The nice thing about it is you don’t have to worry about losing the load on the way to the barn, I still build the load like I do on our flat racks, and we put three horses on this because of the extra weight of the steel cage.

I’ll try and send some dryer weather your way. 🙂

[gwpoky]

My wife and I are planing on going, as long as all the hay is up. I would love too would love to meet as many of you as I can. keep in touch.

[gwpoky]

Dan, anything about 4″ or so, if you are looking to sell a few let me know. you can reach me at 715-821-6775.

Thank you.

[gwpoky]

Tim: Keep an eye out for a pulley for me 🙂 Thanks Jim for the lead I’ll keep an eye on that sight. Trying to get this barn put together as we start in on first crop, may not get it in until second, we shall see.

[gwpoky]

Just a note.

I was talking to a larger farmer in our area a while back and I asked him how much does it cost you to produce a bushel of corn he said ,depending on which ground it was, anywhere from $5.15 to 5.45 and acre at the time corn was hovering around $6.10 as of Friday it was at $5.78 on CBT but it has closed under 5 in the last two months. I guess my main point is, and I have a BS in Animal Science, academic institutions teach: production production production, they never really touch on profit. I don’t care if you produce 1,000,000 bu of corn costing you $5 to produce and you get paid $4.99 you still are losing $10,000. Anyway I digress.

Looking for a stretch of dry days, its time to put up some hay. I hope you all are well.

[gwpoky]

The problem with academics is they never look at the real world around them. More and more people are want to know where there food comes from and many want to have a hand in its production, we have customers wanting to help make hay and butcher chickens all the time. We currently have a waiting list to get a share in our meat CS. I wish I could serve them all right away, but as you all know it takes time to get animal numbers right. Interest in how we farm with horses in this modern age with modern equipment is growing (we have one ten acre field next to a road and every time I am working a team out there someone stops to see how and why we are doing what we are doing. They are often surprised to see that even though this may look like grandpa’s farm but we are meshing the old with the new to make things run well, using horses, as most of you know, takes very little extra time then with tractors and in my opinion the benefits far out weigh the pinch of extra labor. No not every one cares where and how there food is made, but more and more are and I think the future of the small farm looks good.

[gwpoky]

I also didn’t know about the FB page, will check it out, but I check for updates here everyday I can it has been a great resource and motivation. I think everyone is pretty busy right now, I know I am more active on here during the slower season, right now it is raining here. Keep up the good work here and if there is anything I can do to help let me know. Hope to meet up with some of you at the Horse Progress Days…..about a month away yippy.

[Author]

Posts