Efficient Practices?

[gwpoky]

What are things that others are doing to add “efficiencies” to your draft powered farms? I understand that most of us do this for many reasons ie: joy, peace, sustainability, economics, ect. but there has to be some level of efficiency to make it all work (define efficiency as you will). Looking foreword to an interesting discussion.

have a great day.

[f3farms]

my son rode his pony to his boy scout meeting.14 miles round trip.i know its not much but everything helps.

[Billy Foster]

I am one of those people that always has the same amount of work to do…more that I could ever finish!! My life is about managing priorities.
As far as working the horses goes: I am usually able to work the horses one day during the work week but most of the work they do is on the weekends (I have a full time job away from our farm). I wish it was different than this but with all I have to do every day that does not require draft power I just run out of time. On the weekend I will have a list of chores that I need the horses for. I harness them in the AM and tie them at the barn until I need them. I don’t take their harnesses off until I am done with them for the day. Since I do not work the horses much during the work week I can collect a bunch of smaller chores for them even if I do not have a big job. For me if a horse could be used for a particular job I try very hard to use them for that job, even if I need to be less efficient the first few times I do it. I do not make excuses of why I shouldn’t or can’t, I set the situation up so they will be successful and get the work done. I figure they will be better for it in the long run and I will be able to be more efficient because they will be easier to use for whatever I need to do.
As far as general efficiency is concerned: I try to make every step count. I think we all burn up a lot of time just walking from place to place on our farms. I used to use a 4-wheeler because it was a faster way to get around but have stopped it because it does not fit into our core beliefs. Planning out your steps not only for the job you are working on, but for the next couple as well. I wore a pedometer for a while and was pretty surprised when I would walk 4 or 5 miles a day on the weekends.
Another issue I pay attention to is food. I make sure I do not skip eating and drinking, I slow down fast when my “tank” gets low. Just like with the horses I will try to work as efficiently as I can so I can continue to work for the entire day, not burnt out by 3 or 4.
I pick at a lot of jobs. Even if I just put a couple screws in or pick a couple rocks as I walk by, eventually it will get done if I keep working on it.
Think about whether what you are doing is going to matter in a couple years. You may be wasting your time doing a particular job if it is not going to be anything in the long run. For example: I have a field that needs lime desperately and the ferns are really bad, I would spend time mowing them down with a brush mower and even pull them out for hours, eventually I realized I needed to focus just on getting the lime on that field and eventually it would fix itself.

Just some of my thoughts
Billy

[Marshall]

I have thought about harnessing the horses in the morning and leaving them in the barn all day before. That is how most of the Amish do it around here. For some reason I never seemed to do that. I think they would get used more if I did.

[Does’ Leap]

Like most of you, I have too many things to do and not enough time. I aspire to work smart. I am constantly trying to refine different systems of our farm to make them work more smoothly.
Here are a few things I do:

• I ride a bike around the farm instead of walking;
• I have 2 classes of grass-eating livestock: goats and horses. Goats get a fresh paddock of grass every 12 hrs. Horses follow behind goats (in a net fence). This means less labor fencing, moving water lines, and trekking to different parts of the farm (i.e. pick up the goats and drop off the horses). It also enables the goats to top graze the best of the grass and have the horses clean-up.
• I do not harness horses unless I need them. Instead they are in a dry lot outside the barn during the day (pastured at night) – easy to grab and harness.
• I do 1 farmer’s market and wholesale deliveries one day a week in Burlington, VT. Anyone outside the radius of Burlington who wants our products needs to pick them up at the farmer’s market. We also do not sell off the farm. We found dealing with visitors/customers really throws off our rhythm.
• My wife and I have our own areas of the farm that we deal with. We are able to help each out but specialize in our area.
• Instead of leading our 4 horses, I ride one and pony the rest. Our farm is pretty spread out and trotting the horses around saves a lot of time.

George

[Author]

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