[kzorn]

To everyone who has responded –

Thank you all very much for the guidance in the planning stage. Even though I have been growing vegetables and herbs for several seasons, using horses adds such an unique element that has really made me have to reconsider almost all stages of growth. It’s agriculture in a whole new vision, a beautiful vision! With all of this information, personal stories of how each of you do it, and direction to other resources, I am extremely grateful. I really cannot thank each of you enough. I have taken down notes of all of this and cannot wait to put it into practice!

If anyone has anything else to add or anything that you think could benefit a beginner, I am an empty vessel with ears and eyes opened – I would love to hear about your system of seasonal growth. It is all inspiration.

For now I get to ruminate on all of this and come up with all new questions as the season progresses. You folks are great, thanks again, and I hope the beginning of summer is treating you all well.

Keith

[kzorn]

Erika –

Thank you very much for all of this information! The guidance is invaluable, and everyone at Blue Star thanks you for it!! It will help us bring our fields to production for sure. Personally, I have only worked in human powered and small machine operated farms on the small acreage side, so horse powered agriculture is daunting yet extremely exciting!

On the farm we have a smallish tractor, horse drawn disc harrows, a single horse cultivator, moldboards for horses, and a few retired and broken pieces. This year with everything going on we really just want to plant any crop we can with what we have. So far we have potatoes, corn, green beans, and a bunch of smaller kitchen gardens that aren’t laid out for horse work. In upcoming weeks other workers will be planting pumpkin, flower, and other fields. Personally, I have dedicated myself to a farm elsewhere for the rest of summer (I have relayed all of this information you provided me to the remaining workers at Blue Star), but plan on working Blue Star’s fields all of next season. We are in the beginning stages of planning and figuring out what we really need to bring the fields to full production next year with as much emphasis on strictly horse power as possible. This is what inspired me to create this post because I wanted to begin to seriously start to plan and understand what it will take to make this dream happen.

Just so I understand correctly, are you recommending each single row of crops be 36″ from center to center from each other? Which would mean at 24 rows of that crop spacing, at 150′ long, will total an area equivalent of about a 1/4 acre field?

What other pieces of equipment are we missing that you think are crucial for horse powered fields?

So many thanks again for your advice and guidance!
Keith Zorn

[Author]

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