[OldKat]

@J-L 17679 wrote:

Thanks for the report Scott. From looking at the website it seemed like a big sale and I’m a little surprised it held up so well. Also surprising that the mules were out sold, must have been a lot of misguided folks there!

I also cannot figure out folks in this area (including the North slope), at our elevations, who calve so early. When I sell 600# steers off the cow in the fall, very few of the early calvers outweigh mine. Not much advantage there that I can see. Their calves are missing a lot of ears and tails (although I lost a few in early April too).
I think one advantage I have is that my cows have about 3 weeks of green grass under their belt before I breed. I think that tends to flush them, like we used to do with our ewes, with good feed and makes for more fertile heat cycles. Trying to do that in April and early May means your pushing a lot of high dollar feed through them or else you just don’t get the conception or short calving interval that you should have.

Thanks for the compliment.

I think you are dead on correct here. I calf mine the last week of February, and the first couple of weeks in March. Of course our winter is generally over by about the end of the first week of March; wasn’t this year. I try to let those cows get about a month, month and a half or so of spring flush grass in them before I turn out bulls. I think it helps, for exactly the reasons you stated.

Also, in our area we now have people calving cows out in October and even late September to get those mega weaning weights in the early summer. In fact this had become the norm around here, I was one of the few in the area calving at the end of winter. However, I think others are starting to catch on to the fact that a dry cow only needs about 60% of the nutritional requirements of a lactating cow. Come winter time that extra hay and feed comes at a premium, so what are they really gaining by calving so early? Look at nature, few (if any) animals are born in the fall and few if any in the dead of winter. So why would we think we could improve on this model?

[OldKat]

@cousin jack 17670 wrote:

Ha Ha, funnily enough she did suggest that at one point, I countered by saying the exercise would be great for her figure, I think I got another black mark for that one, 😀
I have been working away from home recently, so i have done little with Apollo other than to harness him daily while I tidy up around the field and stables in the evening.

cousin jack,

While I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer; I can ASSURE you that I would have NEVER used that approach. I am in trouble enough already around the house without looking for any more! :p

[OldKat]

@Scott G 17671 wrote:

The draft horse market is back! Well…, at least for this sale. Average teams were going for $4-5k. Top team brought about $12k. Many of these teams were work teams, not show hitch teams. Most decent singles were bringing $1.5-2.5k. These prices are 2 to even 3 times what the last couple of years have seen.
…

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.

[OldKat]

@near horse 17658 wrote:

I should mention that some of the news I’ve heard regarding the Madras sale this last weekend was for some with deep pockets – example a #9 high gear mower refurbished went for $4000. Yep, $4000. Ouch.

Geoff,

I picked up the IHC #9 (regular gear) last Thursday that you had pointed out to me. It is in EXCELLENT condition; probably should replace the tongue and there is one part that has a crack in it that I will be replacing. The parts catalog that the guy I bought it from gave me has that part at about $35.0 so it isn’t too bad. This summer I am going to go through it and make sure everything is within specs. I suspect with parts, paint and all I won’t have more than about $650.0 dollars in it when fully restored, including the cost of the machine. He told me that refurbished it would “fetch $2,000.0 around here in a heartbeat”. Based on the $4,000.0 for the refurbished high gear sounds like I may have made a good buy on it.

I didn’t get the HD disc though; it was already sold before I called on the mower. If I can find the gangs that I would like to use on one I will just build my own.

BTW: It was almost exactly a 3 hour drive from my place to his, in our area that is considered nearly next door. 😉

[OldKat]

@cousin jack 17473 wrote:

Day 15 I was half expecting some trouble today as I was going to drive him straight out of the yard, with the mare calling etc, I thought he might try it on. But, not a bit of it, straight out of the yard and up the lane no bother, we did about a mile and a half, and he has a real good stride on him, turned around and set off for home, got my wife to lean back on the traces and pull them around a bit, I kept telling her to “lean back, dig your heels in”, “I am” she says, anyway he was keen to get home but was not stupid about it, my wife was sweating by the time we got home though, I told her she should be grateful for such a work out, they would have charged her a fortune at a gym.

Just curious, how was that received? I tried the same thing with my wife, but she didn’t fall for it. She kept saying, “Let ME drive the mare and YOU pull on the traces!” 😀

[OldKat]

@Scott G 17483 wrote:

For those of you in the Central Rockies or within driving distance to the Denver area, Harley Troyer’s spring draft horse auction is this weekend, Fri 16th & Sat 17th.

http://www.troyerauctions.com/sale_bill.php?Event_ID=1539

I’m almost always at both the spring & fall auctions. I put it at the top for draft events in the area. Just plain fun…

If you’re there give me a call & we can visit a bit. My cell is 970-217-9692.

So how did it go Scott? What were the prices like?

[OldKat]

@dhbow 17491 wrote:

Might seem like a dumb question but that’s never stopped me before so here goes. What do you use on your cattle to keep them free from ticks and fleas, I don’t think I have a tick problem but I have taken a few ticks off my steers and lyme disease is a problem in our area.

Doug

Do you have sulfur (salt) blocks out for your cattle? I had heard years ago that sulfur salt blocks help inhibit ticks on cattle. I always keep them out, in addition to free choice minerals. I can’t tell you if that is why I have never found ticks on my cattle, but I never have. I check my cows for ticks while they are being worked, which is twice a year…spring and fall.

[OldKat]

@near horse 16763 wrote:

Hi Donn,

Thanks for your thoughts. The reason I ask is that right now I only have 2 horses and would like to use them as much as possible. I’ve considered using a hay wagon with a popup loader on it to go back and pickup those bales left on the ground.

Geoff, do you have a picture that you could post of that pop up loader? I have the exact same issues that you have.

BTW: Going to pick up that IHC #9 mower this Thursday, thanks to you for the heads up.

[OldKat]

@grey 17434 wrote:

There is a small local draft horse show I go to each year. While event staffing does try to keep people from coming through the barns while we are hitching and harnessing, in reality there are still a lot of kids with balloons, distracted moms with double-wide strollers and – like John mentioned – folks whose desire to interact with the horses leads them to make all sorts of noises at the animals.

This is an example of one of those situations where I do expect my horses to stand but always have the lines in my hands. Not because I’m expecting my horses to misbehave, but because I’m afraid a human being will misbehave. People take it upon themselves to do some weird things.

What a great idea.

[OldKat]

@jac 17421 wrote:

Our horses have to cope with the extremes of work at home and the public parades we do in the summer. Our public might number 3000. The 2 geldings i use now have done this for 10yrs. My lines are buckled together once the cross checks have been connected but I have them looped in big loops and make sure i have no contact with their bits till im in the box seat. Another thing Iv managed to teach them is not to move JUST on the “kiss” or “click”.. the reason behind this is the public seem to want to “kiss” or “click” a horse as they approach them and the amount of hitch horses Iv seen over the years that have lunged or just went to take a step purely on that sound alone :eek:!!! I made a mental note early on that if i was in a public situation mine wouldnt do that, Took a lot of repetition but now my team wont move till I give them a slight message down the line a second before the “kiss”.. No line contact… and anyone can approach now without me worrying about trampled children.. Tho I never get complacent.. The 2 mares are still learning this but I dont think they will do the parades. I’ll keep them for the work at home..
John

What a great idea.

[OldKat]

@Joshua Kingsley 17430 wrote:

I found this article (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1987-07-01/The-Suffolk-Punch.aspx) about a member here on DAP. It gose into how Jason started with Suffolks and farming with horses. It is a good read now we just need an Update on how things are there…

Joshua

motherearthnews; I had forgotten about motherearthnews. Glad you pointed this story out, it was a good read. I think everything they had to say was appropriate to that day, and probably more so to this day. If their coverage was timely then, it is “timeless” now.

As interesting as it was to read about our friend Jason, and it was interesting, I liked the little mini-profiles of other horsefarmers at the end of the story. Just tends to show how versatile and adaptable (and widespread) they really are.

Best of all I really enjoyed reading this;

Horses are quiet, tractors are loud. Horses are temperamental, personal, attention-demanding … company. And there’s the rub. If you find that you don’t enjoy working with horses, you absolutely should not do it. All the extra care and attention they demand will soon become a burden. If, on the other hand, you take pleasure in their company and the quality work they do, then even the caretaking chores become pleasures of their own.

Good find Joshua.

[OldKat]

@Tim Harrigan 17418 wrote:

I measured tension in the towing device for horse- and ox-drawn farm utility wagons loaded to 6100 lb. One wagon had 6.00-16 bias ply tires and the other had 5.5 inch wide steel tires. Each wagon was drawn with both a team of horses (16º hitch angle) or a team of oxen (8º hitch angle). The horse hitch consisted of a standard collar harness with stitched, inelastic leather/nylon traces. A North American-style ox yoke with a dropped hitch point was used with a team of Milking Shorthorn steers.

Pulling forces with the standard horse traces or towing chain (ox) were compared to the nylon towropes. The nylon towrope (3/4 inch diameter) consisted of woven nylon strands that formed a hollow shell. Within the shell was a 12 inch long hard rubber core. The nylon towrope stretched 4 inches at a constant rate of 1/2 inch per 225 lbs under an 1800 lb load.

Pulling force measurements were made with a hydraulic pull-meter with a pressure transducer on the discharge side of the cylinder. The pull meter was placed in the towing chain and the pulling forces were recorded at a frequency of 5 Hz with a monitor attached to the transducer. A sub-meter accuracy global positioning system receiver was used to record the position of the implement and match pulling forces with specific locations in the field.

You are certainly methodical and ingenious in obtaining your measurements; my hat is off to you for undertaking this task. I’ll continue to monitor this interesting discussion.

I am reminded what Jan Bonsma, probably one of the most preeminent animal scientists of the immediate past century, said; “Man can’t improve what he can’t measure; MAN MUST MEASURE”

[OldKat]

@jenjudkins 17396 wrote:

You europeans have a seriously weird sense of humor!:D

That is EXACTLY what I was thinking Jen, but I didn’t want to offend my friend bivol! 🙂

[OldKat]

@Carl Russell 17398 wrote:

My experience was similar to Donn.

I was leaving my job (the only job I have ever had, 1984-86) as a log buyer for a large sawmill. I had a degree in forestry, but wanted to go into logging, as my method of practicing it. I was trying to make arrangements with New England Equipment to buy a 450D to go into the woods. I happened across the trailer of a horse-logger whom I had been buying logs from, parked beside the main road. I stopped, and as I was walking up the skid trail, I could here the jingle of trace chains, and the quiet one-word commands of this man. Walt Bryan was not a big man, and as I watched him driving his single horse, I could see the art, the dance, the power that he directed with the lightest touch.

I never gave the crawler another thought, even after 24 years I am still compelled by that image. I bought a horse from Walt, and still remember the feeling of absolute uncertainty as I walked my new horse up the hill and listened to the trailer rolling down the road. I had no idea what I had started, but it was exactly what I needed to be doing.
Carl

That is when you KNOW that it is right for you. Wish I could feel the same about my career choice. I am happy for you Carl, and quite frankly just a touch envious.

Good for you Carl Russell, you are doing what you want and should be doing.

[OldKat]

Tim Harrigan; maybe you said somewhere how you obtained these numbers, but if so I missed it. I suspect that you are using a strain gauge of some sort. Could you briefly outline your methodology in making your measurements?

Thanks,
SRR

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