60" wide driving setup

where your horses walk starts with how wide you set you double tree. then the cross line side of your driving lines.

Interesting question. You may need to make a custom cross check for it to be long enough to set them that far apart. I would also make the cross check long enough to set it back further on the other line. The angles created will effect how they turn in in some tight turns. It would also be interesting to see how they would drive with a different set up altogether. I think lynn Miller talked about driving horses hooked to a buck rake where they are far apart and driving each one separately. I almost wonder if you could put a team line to each animal, but without crossing them. Flip them around so the long one is on the out side, but it would only need to be a couple inches longer. Then when you drive them you are essential going forward and turning by slowing one or the other. I think that would be a fun experiment.

Anthony,

I’ve been thinking of trying the same thing on my parents predominantly tractor powered farm. We run all of our beds on 6′ centers with 1-5 rows per bed. For some crops (sweet corn, beans, strawberries, squash) the 6′ and 36″ spacing between rows works out well. But I can only cultivate 1 row at a time with the McCormick where with the tractor I can cultivate two. Currently its hard to rationalize using the horses on tasks they perform at half the efficiency of our tractors when there is a myriad of things they can perform with equal or greater efficiency (ie seeding cover crop, spreading fertilizer with the drop spreader, single horse cultivating black plastic, bulk harvests of produce). I’d just love to add another thing to the list.

It gets a bit more complicated with the majority of the small seeded crops. I’ve been talking with the folks at Crossroad Cultivator about extending the axles of a McCormick so the wheels are on 6′ centers (just like our tractors). A wider yoke and evener would be used to put the horses in the wheel tracks. I’m hoping the tractor tire tracks will work as a guidance system for the horses. We have a beautiful, light, tool bar off of an old G which if I’m lucky will mount easily to cultivate multiple rows at once.

I’ve seen some I and J cultivators set up with wide eveners and yokes to cultivate black plastic which are definitely worth checking out. From these photos its is challenging to see how they rigged up the lines. I’d love to hear how this works out for you!

What are you using for a cultivator?
Any thoughts on how you will rig up a tool bar?
What are the motivations for extending the width of your beds?

I’d love to hear what tasks other mixed power veg operations have found for their teams. Right now we are in the middle of Cover Crop season and I’ve only knocked out 3 of 33 acres. Yikes! Got to go get that vetch and Rye in the ground!

Carl