[OldKat]

Beautiful pictures. Amazing country. I hope to make a trip over there someday, glad you got a chance to go.

[OldKat]

Sorry to hear that you got beat up for not posting pictures with enough detail last year. Happy it didn’t stop you from posting more this year though! GREAT pictures; wish I had those skills. Please post more often.

Going to your website now to see more of your work.

[OldKat]

@jenjudkins 17965 wrote:

OK, I’ve become a plowing junkie! I attended the first annual GMDHA plowing bee with Reno and won our class….single horse walking plow. We were the only participants in the class. I would normally exclude that bit, but we did a pretty pathetic job….AND I’m told there are not many single horse contestants out there….so voila, I have a new obsession!

Anyhoo, Farmer Brown attended the GMDHA auction saturday on his way to the Billings Farm plowing bee (his horses are enormous!) today. I spoke with him about a single horse walking plow and bought his plowing video. It was pricey and I balked at first…but I have seen 2 of the 3 DVDs and am very impressed. He gives a nice overview of harnessing, eveners, yokes, etc. and why one type is better than the other, then describes how to renovate an old plow (I found this part delicious!). He then sets about plowing with a walking plow, describes how to adjust it and what the ideal furrow should look like. Then he shows you how to be a perfectionist and fix your ‘mistakes’. He then goes on to a three horse walking plow and then a two horse one way sulky plow. Then a two way in hard gravelly soil, etc. etc. You get the picture.

Very nice resource for anyone who wants to plow with horses…

Cool thanks for the evaluation.

[OldKat]

@reb 17959 wrote:

My team is 58″ and around 1000#. On most things I use 28″ single trees and a 40″ evener and that seems to work well.
Here is just a quick thought on what I was thinking for a pole offset PIC
Also another Question, can someone tell me about side draft and the rod that goes from the heel of the bar to the point of hitch. How might this work with the offset pole?

Properly braced, I don’t see why that wouldn’t work. I do think that the offset that you would build would not need to be quite as much as you have on your edited view.

[OldKat]

@reb 17941 wrote:

Thanks for all the help so far. I have thought about selling this, but it is in really good shape and it was also a gift from a nice older gentleman who really wants to see it cleaned up and used, but on the other side I want a machine I can use with my team. What I am thinking right now is an off set pole fabricated out of steel, it would be offset about 18”+/-. So here is more questions, with this offset will the mower still handle and function as it should? Has anyone here done somthing like this before? If need be do you think I could heat and straighten the timing bar? What are others using for paint on these mowers? Again thank you, and I’m sure I’ll have other question, I hope you all don’t mind.
Richard

Now that I look at the picture of your mower with a two horse mower as a point of reference I agree with Carl & Donn that this probbaly was a one horse rig from the get go.

I was also looking at the timing bar and thinking that it didn’t look right. I would take it off and put a rosebud torch on it and try to straighten it out. I don’t think you are going to screw anything up if you go slow and easy. I’ll get back to you on the paint and scheme as I am researching that right now.

I am going to see if I can run down the guy that I mentioned that had a one horse mower and see if he still has it. He use to live about an hour away from me, but moved about 3 years ago and I have lost contact with him. If I can find him and he is still reasonably close I will see about getting some pictures for you of his mower; assuming he still has it.

[OldKat]

@reb 17925 wrote:

The cover only says “McCormick Deering.” If you loof a this PIC you can see how close the pole will sit to the bar, Is this the same on #9’s?

Yes it is. My 9 looks to be set up just about like your mower. In the manual that I have it shows the tongue mounting into a cast iron housing that sits on top of the tongue, but I know that the housing on mine sits under the tongue; same as yours. That would be the rectangular slot immediately beside the tool box. My gear box is bigger than yours, almost the size of a third member on an automobile. Like I said the pawl holders on mine are different than yours; mine being larger in diameter and sitting almost flush with the hub of the wheels. Other than that they look very similar. My mower is a #9, Regular gear.

I’m not sure that I have ever seen a #7 or earlier IH mower, so that may be what you have. Someone on this board WILL know what you have and what you can or can’t do with it, that much I can say with some degree of confidence.

[OldKat]

@mitchmaine 17917 wrote:

carl, molasses was always the way to get cattle to eat poor hay, and they had great lusterous coats when they were on it, so i always leaned to molasses with our horses, but lately i was thinking the way you are and went to just oats, bran or pulp, and two or three fistfuls of black oil sunflower seeds. birdfood. pictures of birds right on the bag. full of fat. i think its working. they seem to be making weight. i may change my mind but thats the latest experiment.

That is interesting. Were the horses at all thin before you started feeding the sunflower seeds? I know that when our kids were in 4-H and showing rabbits some people fed the black sunflower seeds to improve their haircoat, though I never could tell that their rabbits had better fur than ours did so I didn’t pursue it.

[OldKat]

@reb 17920 wrote:

Oldkat,
It has the four foot bar and looks just like the drawings in SFJ of the one horse. When I picked it up ther wasn’t a pole or shafts as it had been last used 30 years ago behind a tractor. So I’m not 100% sure, but pretty close that it’s a one horse, maybe others can chime in and answer this and other questions.
Richard

The 4 foot bar does line up with what I remember about a single horse mower that a buddy of mine use to have, though I know that can be changed. I just wish I had paid more attention to it. I only mowed on it one day, and that was probably 5 or 6 years ago so I don’t recall much about it.

I noticed that the tool box cover is still on it, does it say what “#” that mower is? i.e. 6, 7, 9? I think from what little I see that your mower is closer to being ready to use with a team than you might think. If I could just find my mower book by Lynn R. Miller I could probably tell you more.

I know that there are some super knowledgeable people on this site and I am sure somebody will come up with an answer for you. Just give it a few days; I am sure there is a definitive answer out there somewhere.

[OldKat]

@reb 17911 wrote:

Hello everyone,
This is my first time posting here, and I am hoping someone can help me out.
My questions have to do with converting a McCormick Deering one horse mower to a two horse. First is this even recommended it looks like when I add a pole I will end up with a half a horse in front of the cutting bar, how much will this affect cutting? My reasons for doing this conversion are 1.I was given a complete working mower. 2.my team is 2 haflingers, and I like the idea of lighter daft.
Is there any thing (besides adding a pole) that I will have to modify? Thank you, I hope this isn’t to long of a post.

Richard.

Richard,

Are you sure that isn’t already a two horse mower? Other than the pawl holders (the “hub caps” at the end of the axles) and not having a tongue on it, that looks nearly identical (gear box is different for sure) to a #9 that I just bought about two weeks ago.

I have only ever used a one horse mower one time, and it has been a good number of years ago so I don’t recall how that differs from the team version. I did notice on the one that I bought, but haven’t used yet, that the off side horse would be walking with their right side directly in front of the inside end of the sickle bar … same as you are describing.

I have an Instruction Manual for mine right here in my hand, so I will flip through it tonight and see if they say anything about the differences between the two.

[OldKat]

@OldKat 17675 wrote:

The guy that I bought the mower from (in the post above) had a team of Percheron geldings for sale. He was asking $4,000.0 for the team. He said he posted his ad on a website on Saturday morning, by noon on Monday they were loaded and gone. He waited a few days and posted an add for a single Perch mare at $2,000.0. It took him about 3 or 4 days to sell her. All 3 animals were well trained and worked regularly. He didn’t say where the geldings went, but the mare went to an 80 year old man in Central Texas that still uses draft horses regularly around his farm. I guess prices have firmed up some, because they weren’t bringing those kind of prices around here a year or so ago.

5.01.10 update.

… then again maybe not. There was a large horse sale about 15 miles from where I live last week. Mostly working Quarter horse lines and other saddle breeds, but a sprinkling of draft horses. Line bred Two Eyed Jack yearlings were bringing $250.0 each, or less. One guy brought a trailer load of nice blue roans that were of the Valentine bloodlines, which I am not familiar with, down from Oklahoma. When he went back over the Red River he had all but one of them with him. Sad.

There was one guy that brought 4 Shires to the sale; a team of geldings, a single gelding and a massive brood mare (not trained to drive). These were all nice horses, he had videos of the geldings working in harness and had harness with him if you wanted to try them. They went through the ring and there was NOT ONE BID on any of them. I am not a real fan of Shires, but if I had been there early enough to see the Shires in the ring I would have gladly bid on that team. Of course, I am not in the heart of draft horse country, but you would think somebody would have been interested.

[OldKat]

@Biological Woodsman 17885 wrote:

Yes, you may buy a DVD called “Restorative Forestry Techniques” that has all three segments on it, from http://www.ruralheritage.com

I agree, satellite TV is not worth having for a couple of channels and that is about all that’s on it worth watching…imo
Thanks for asking Kevin.

~

Ain’t that the truth. My wife and I were talking about the very same subject a week or so ago. We have cable TV; which is costing us out the nose, yet of the probably 60 channels that we get there isn’t more than 3 or 4 that even worth watching. We are thinking of pulling the plug on the whole deal; too much cost, too little value.

[OldKat]

@J-L 17896 wrote:

That’s my Madi. She is a free spirit if there ever was one. Had her out picking sticks for me and she just decided to hitch a ride. Cow turds do not bother this little girl. 7 years old and just loads of fun to be with. The biggest benefit of this ranch is spending time with my kids.

Bingo. The Amish say that is one of the main drivers in the cultural aspect of their decision to forego some modern technologies; keeping families together. If anyone wants an interesting read try Success Made Simple by Eric Wesner. One of the many aspects of Amish business that he examines is the desire to grow their businesses specifically to keep the family structure intact.

[OldKat]

@hardpan99 17729 wrote:

Hansjörg Fischer
Unterbühlhof
D-78337 Öhningen
Tel.: +49 7735 1318
Fax: +49 7735 1545
eMail: unterbuehl@t-online.de

Fa. Hans Burkhalter
Bachhaus
CH-3418 Ruegsbach
Tel.: +41 34 460 1515
Fax: 460 1516

http://www.univecus.com/english/index.htm

Thanks hardpan99. That is nearly the exact system I have had rumbling around inside my head for some time now. I’ll have study it further. Thanks again for posting this.

[OldKat]

@Joel 17696 wrote:

Well, since neither of you run cows for a living why don’t you ask the rancher why it’s done that way? I suspect he has a good reason.

That reason may be that is how dad did it.

Here’s the thing…he is doing it – you are not.

Can’t speak for what and why people do what they do in other parts of the world. I CAN speak for my little part of it. Few people in our area “run cows for a living”, those few that do DO NOT calve in the fall … PERIOD.

You are correct about saying people are doing things because Dad did them that way. That is common here, too. Mostly though people in this area could care less if they are making money off cows or not, same as their dad probably didn’t care. The value of cows in this area is twofold; 1) keep the grass down so doesn’t have to be mowed. 2) keep the property taxes low through the “Ag exemption”. Since the focus is NOT on the cattle, somewhat by definition cattle operations around here are pretty sorry to say the least. Wish it wasn’t the case, but that is where it is.

Most people in our area probably lose somewhere in excess of $250.0 to $275.0 per cow each year accordiing to statistics I have seen. Last year I suspect the number was twice that or more, due to the drought. Many people started feeding imported hay in July and fed straight on through until about a month ago. I fed some in the summer, but then culled cows hard and only fed a few through the winter. Turns out that most of that loss is attributed to feeding hay, which I am trying to minimize or eliminate completely. Anyway, they can do what they want; it is not MY MONEY that they are spending. If they want to calve in the fall, feed hungry cows all winter and then brag about the 800 lbs plus calves they hauled to the sale barn in June, well sir, it works for me.

[OldKat]

@wally b 17684 wrote:

I just say your post today. I would guess that your horse power is a “Kelly” make. Several years ago there was an article by a man who collected horsepowers in the SFJ. I corresponded with him for a while but he is probably deceased now. He said that the Kelly power was the only one that ran 14 head. All the other big ones ran 12.

At one time he said he had over 12 sweep powers.

I have a 8 horse and a team power.

wally

Interesting equipment.

Do you actually use them? If so, how?

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