[J-L]

Geoff, I use a Ferris Wheel bale picker and it works fine on big, open meadows. Not the greatest thing in turns. Having a wagon trailing right behind is a little easier in that regard. Most of my place is irregular in size and shape down in the river bottom.
What we used to do was have a kid bucking bales behind the baler (not too hard a job) and a pair of guys stacking and running fresh wagons to the baler. With that system we could put up 1000 bales per day or better.
I have not tried the bale picker with a team, but if you have room for it I don’t see why that’s not a good option. I may try it this summer up on my open ground on the bench. I’ll probably want to experiment a little with where my hitch point is for a smaller wagon. Might be fun.

[J-L]

It’s ironic that you made this post at the time you did. I have a neighbor who had bought a team in a local sale. I (and lingodog13 and lost farmer) saw this team go through and thought they were a decent, aged team (13 years old) of Percheron horses.
The old guy who bought them has had his hired man and son driving them and has had nothing but trouble with them. Constantly jigging, won’t stand, want to run, etc. I asked him pointedly if his son was driving them and he said yes. The son is a notoriously hot headed fella, who can lose his cool and yell loud enough to scare me, and would definitely get a spooky team un-nerved.
Today after I get done feeding I’m headed to his place to pull shoes and trim that team and if I have time we’re going to hook up and see what’s going on. He’s got plenty of work for them, with a feed trail that’s a good 4 mile round trip daily.
We’ll see if two calm heads can help these horses out. The old guy himself was a good teamster in his day. I’ve seen his other teams work and they were very solid, and he seemed a patient teamster with good hands.

[J-L]

I’ve been looking at all these options as well. One thing I’ve noticed is that you don’t see ground drive balers eating up giant winrows of grass hay. I just don’t think they could handle it.
I agree with Donns’ point about the amount of horses it’ll take if you tow a hay wagon behind instead of picking bales off the ground.
The motorized forecart looks to be the best option for my situation at least. The other option is fixing up the old balers I find around here that have the Wisconsin 4 cyl gas motors mounted. We had one and just wore it out. They were nice because you could pull it with a small tractor or team and you didn’t have to work with that PTO driveline in my small, irregular meadows. In other words it was more manueverable.

[J-L]

Welcome to this board. I enjoy the international flavor we are getting here now. Makes for some interesting reading and different viewpoints.
I always wanted to visit Scotland. May never get the chance, so please post a lot of pictures.

[J-L]

That’s what we call it in Wyoming too jac. Always heard it like this; ‘That horse sure has a lot of feather.’
It’s always interesting to hear from our overseas friends.

[J-L]

Hello there JimB. Where are you at in Wyoming?
I’ve been around down south and east too and couldn’t wait to get back to Wyoming! I guess it’s what you’re used to. I wasn’t used to people and heat, something they have a lot of back there.
I remember when I spent a couple years in CT. I traveled around the New England area and down to W. Virginia. Had a great time and met some great people, but I sure missed the open spaces of the west.
I’d have to say I liked West Virginia quite a lot as well as the part of Virginia just over the mountain. Had some friends there running a dairy farm. Nice country there too.

[J-L]

I have a few extra head of animals as well, but not that many (14 horses and mules). All of them drive, pack, or ride. Some of them do all of them. I can’t have a hayburner on the ranch.
I have been surprised at how many people do some packing in Minnesota. I had it in mind that was more of a western endeavor. Don’t know a great deal about that state though.
I take it you run some cows? What breed or breeds are you using?

[J-L]

I open my collars. They won’t break down if you don’t just flop them open. Carefully open them and keep ahold of both sides, slide them up and on. Not hard at all.
Like Donn said, it’s necessary to open them with mules. When I worked horses more we’d have them stuff their head through most of the time unless they had pads on.

[J-L]

Most of the problems with barbed wire is wire that is down or not tight. If you keep it stretched and stapled up good you’ll be fine. I’ve had horses get wire cut but not often.
Last time I checked the high tensile electric was fairly expensive. It’s cheaper for me to use barbed. In this country it’ll last a lifetime and is easy to fix. There is fence on my place that was put in in the 1930’s and is still up. The cedar posts are still too hard to pound staples in.
When we had a horse or two get cut it was fighting other horses through the fence. One neighbor turned a stud horse out next to one of our horse pastures and didn’t bother to tell anyone. Needless to say we had a mare in heat and both her and the stud got in the wire.
I did have a horse get cut in the woven wire fence too.

[J-L]

Gees! Like the old saying, go big or stay home! Looks good. I sure like to see some good, useful work being done with animals. I sure wish you were closer so I could join in. I’ve worked 4 abreast in the field and really liked doing it. It never ceased to amaze me how much more you can get done by adding more horses (or mules).
I put 4 head on my meadow drags and will do some discing this spring with a bigger hitch. I also put 4 head on my grain drill and will do it again this spring. I have more animals now and can hook six head if I need to and probably will to do the discing. Thanks for putting the picture up and try and get some more. Do like Jason said and hijack a kid to figure it out.

[J-L]

I use both leather and beta lines. I also use Kinco gloves (great gloves for the money) and at times have the same issue. I’m going to give the mink oil a try. I always have used it on my boots and its a good water proofer.

[J-L]

Wow, now the poems are coming out of the woodwork. Good one Near Horse.

[J-L]

Scott, I’d be willing to run a team down, depending on the timeframe. My time in summer is limited with the ranch to run but I’d sure like to help out what little I could.

[J-L]

I work teams in much colder weather than zero. No matter what my cows have to be fed, especially when it gets cold. Over the years we’ve worked them in -20 and colder pretty much every year.
It’s a rare winter when we don’t have some weather colder than that, but I have never frosted anyones lungs.

[J-L]

I like them both.
Mule advantages are: good feet, low maintenance, easy keepers, work for less feed, maybe a longer useful lifespan.
Horse advantages are: a little more tractable and easier or quicker to train (to me), maybe a little more power.

I don’t understand the myth of the ‘vengeful, kick your teeth out a month later to get back at you’ thing. I’ve had some awful wrecks with mules and have had to resort to some rough treatment to get out of binds and if anything I find them to be forgiving animals. They don’t stand much mistreatment, but you shouldn’t go there anyway.
I’ve never been kicked by a mule. I have been kicked and bit by some horses. Maybe I’ve been more careful around mules, but that is a fact.

I don’t have a favorite between them. I say the best of the two is whichever one you like for yourself and no one else is wrong or right.

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