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Mike Rock
ParticipantThank you. The horses stand well between the 9’6″ pin to pin distance but their heels are too darned close to the points. I can see why your dealer friend cut the tongues longer. Looks like that is in the cards….right after I installed the first tongue 🙁
Mike
ParticipantCheck out any decent plowing reference on how to set your plow to mellow out the high and low spots. Shallow plowing to the outside will fill the opening furrows. You need to vary the depth with each pass or do a succession of shallow passes to move enough soil to the low spots. This is how you make contour ridges and how you can get rid of them. My farm has dead furrows that you can lose a horse in. Not wanting to work the whole field because it is 30+ years of CRP sod has me doing just this to fill the dead furrows and the opening furrows. Then I will just have strips of new seeding to keep the cows from pugging, can fence that with electric fence.
Mike
ParticipantI just found these folks a few days back. Looks like they have what is needed for a new bakery wagon in terms of running gear and other parts.
http://www.texaswagonworks.com/catologue/cat_buggy_gear_kit.shtml
Mike Rock
ParticipantLooks just like my Planet Jr. cultivator. Not like my IH of the same format.
The string idea works, as does just following other soil working marks, like the seeder or even drag marks. Lots easier if some green stuff is there to follow, like the potato sprouts. Got twenty pounds in, another hundred to go.
Mike
Breaking 35 acres out of CRP is NOT for horses. Disking several times gets the soil nice and mellow with 30 years of accumulated organic matter. The old M gets a workout. The boys and girls with keep up with the planting and we will then be officially a ‘horse’ farm!!! 151 + 25. About 60 will be under crops these first years. Hope to work up to 75 or so, rotating through crops and pastures following Newman Turner’s good organic farming model. Acres USA just reprinted Turner’s four books. WELL worth the price for some sound knowledge.
ParticipantJac,
What is the advantage of this wonderfully built implement over a rotary hoe?
I see the slit versus wider hole of the hoe but is there an inherent advantage to the new design? I have a two section rotary hoe to help aerate pasture.
I now want to use it as the first stage tillage followed by a seeder/packer to reseed without breaking the sod.Mike
ParticipantHi Jason,
Can you drop me an email?Mike Rock
mikerock@mhtc.netParticipantKeep me posted as well. I have a friend in Belgium rounding up some Brabander for me as well and shipping was our concern. Do you know what the cost of shipping by air and by sea might be, approximately?
I am looking for solid horses, for work and breeding/increase for our own use and possible sale. Not a get rich scheme, that’s for sure, but enough to pay freight off eventually. I just love the old Belgians as that is what the family had until after WWII.
Most respectfully,
Mike Rock
Southern Swiss-consinParticipantThanks from me too. Just got the bobsled out of the barn and put together.
We are getting up to 14+ inches of snow tonight and tomorrow…..followed by -4 degrees and 30-40 mph winds.Thanks for the question Rod. Are you guys in the path of this storm or a little too far north?
Mike
ParticipantHi Rod.
Yup, it’s me, from German Valley.Tongue trucks are either an addition to or original equipment on many mowers and other HD implements. They fit a few feet out on a short tongue to take the weight of the front of the implement and to relieve the horses of that weight on the neck yoke/horses necks. There is a regular long tongue to connect to the neck yokes, so that is the only weight the horse bears.
The double trees are afixed to the tongue truck or the short tongue, again depending upon the implement. The long tongue steers the truck wheels.
Some tongue trucks have a spring loaded lever that pushes up on the bottom of the tongue, relieving the horses of even that small weight.Mike
ParticipantOn the thread of bringing ground back into health, check Acres USA. They have just reprinted Newman Turner’s 1950’s book series on ‘Fertility Farming’, Fertility Pastures, Herdsmanship and Cure Your Own Cattle.
He emphasizes the use of naturally occurring very deep rooting plants to bring up minerals from deep down. Alfalfa gets a nod, but Chicory, Plantain, Sheep’s Parsley (just regular old parsley) and Burnet have deep root systems and become cow candy when pastured. The cattle know what is healthy, and a diet of straight Alfalfa is NOT healthy.
Barenbrug seeds at< http://www.barenbrug.com/barusa/EN/grasses.php>
has most of what Turner recommended, but I found the hot stuff in their site in England. They have a herbal (read, WEED that is useful to man) pasture mix that contains all the deep rooters.I inquired of my local seedsman and he got interested in Turners work. He has now got a supply of these good seeds inbound US and will be selling them soon. If this sparks interest, let me know and I will get the name of the ‘source’ here in the US and put it up.
Most respectfully,
Mike Rock
Who is getting 25Kg of this seed to start the process.Disclosure……no financial interest in this company….. they have an interest in MY money though…. 🙁 Stuff is expensive
ParticipantWhen I worked in North Dakota we had a stone boat with a modification.
Four 2×12’s about twelve feet long bolted to a steel curved up nose, like a regular stone boat. The twist was there was a 3″ or so slot down the middle.
At the rear the boards were bolted in pairs, right and left and the slot keep on going out the back. The rear pieces were beveled with a plane on the front edges at a very shallow angle.In front was a very low ‘dashboard’, maybe a foot tall. It’s only real function was to brace up a pair of 2-1/2″ ID pieces of pipe that were bolted to it.
Those pipes held a chunk of old driveshaft (for those old enough to remember cars with enclosed drivelines)!!. The shaft was pointed and did duty as a rock picker when fencing.You were hooked to the baler with a short chain. The bales came out the chute and you started your pile at the rear, three abreast the long way and up to three high at max. When you got enough to be afraid of losing the load you picked up the iron rod and drove it into the ground in the groove, in front of the bales. They slid over the tapered rear brace pieces and onto the ground in a neat little stack. We picked them up later…..there was not much rain to worry about…..
Most respectfully,
Mike Rock
Now in southern Wisconsin.
With Percherons and Belgians and critters…..- AuthorPosts