Working Donkey teams

[Rod]

I wonder if any readers are using donkey teams or singles to do work on the farm or homestead. I have a pair of standard Donkeys that pull and am thinking about jobs that they can handle if spring ever get here.

[Anonymous]

I’ve started driving a 2 1/2 year old jack and doing some very light skidding (very small poles). Will pack him this coming fall.
Joe (Ak)

@Rod 1176 wrote:

I wonder if any readers are using donkey teams or singles to do work on the farm or homestead. I have a pair of standard Donkeys that pull and am thinking about jobs that they can handle if spring ever get here.

[Mastro]

Get land. working with donkeys.

i’ve only graduated last december (mec eng.) but it a goal for me.

i’m interested in learning more on this subject on this forum…

PS : i’ll be at the All-day intensive this friday at howedale farm… (NAPFD)

[Robert MoonShadow]

Rod ~ I’m new here… saw your posting >>> I’ve sent for a 4 yo standard jack from Texas, I market-garden & sell firewood (and work for a guy w/ his draft mules building trails in wildernesswes)… how’d your attempts to work your donkeys ever come out?

[Rod]

I kind of dropped the project as my wife took the Donkeys over for riding and I acquired a team of ponies. I still think there is a place where Donkeys are just the right animal to use.

[bivol]

considering a relatively low (sometimes free in US!) prices of good sized donkeys, they could be used for agriculture, too. a small farm would do on donkey power, given the soil isn’t too heavy, and the climate is right.

i found these donkeys harnessed to a plow in africa. they are pulling a double-furrow plow:
the pics are in upper 1/5 of the page.

or, this vid:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iHf69orG1I&feature=related

the donkey is used to cultivate a greenhouse (?), which lowers fuel costs, AND keeping a donkey gives one excellent greenhouse manure.

[Robert MoonShadow]

I just got back to this forum after being gone all summer…naturally headed back to this thread! I bought 2 jennys this summer; Kinsey (the mother) is 50″, 17 y.o., and done it all, literally = parades; living nativity scenes; worked from a single up to a 4-abreast on harrows, etc.; ridden in the mountains; guard for sheep (and now my goats); snigging 4′ lengths of firewood; pasture ornament for the last 9 years or so…her daught Jenny-Mae is 9, the previous owner’s daughters rode her & Kinsey, but she’s never been harnessed.
So, one trained but “rusty”, and the other’s been handled a lot…plus just made a sweet deal on an 8″ walk-behind plow (yay! One small enough for the donks!) and a w-b cultivator…for 1 1/2 cord of lodgepole firewood in the round. Pretty decent shape, considering they were in open storage at the local antique dealer’s. {“Hey, dude – how about letting me put that lawn ornament to REAL work, as it was intended?”}
So…anybody interested in ‘talking donkey’ w/ me? 😎

[Robernson]

Anybody got some advice for Robert and Me?:D
~~R

[bivol]

well, what’ya wanna do with them?

carting, plowing, etc: google donkey cart africa or donkey plow or plough africa to get some extra info…

some ideas:
some say donkeys are less tractabkle than mules, and that they can’t be forces to work, you have to drag them etc.

i think the biggest issue would be to learn them to walk up front, without you dragging them by their collars, at least that’s a common mistake in my country…

learning lessons should be short, fun and not very repetative – donkeys are smart and don’t like too much repetition oxen sometimes need.

“donkey will drop dead working for an owner he likes” red it somewhere

praising is important – donkeys crave attention and like to know they’ve dome something good.

do get them broken to carting, they can be very useful.

[Joshua Kingsley]

My first draft animal was a donkey. His name was Danny and he was bout 10 hh, I got him to drag my pony cart around and had him for several years. I gave him to a nice girl when I was headed to college. It took a while before he was a good cart donk, but he was very forgiving and was willing to do about anything for me. I wish now that I had done some things different and had taken more time to see just what I could have done with the little guy. His favorite speed was a walk but would go for many miles with a heavy load of kids in the cart.

I would say that if you had acess to some donks give them a fair shake, they are a great animal and would be very nice if handled with love and attention. They are also thrifty so feed is much cheeper than some other drafts.

Joshua

[Robernson]

Yeah,
My parents just bought me a standard jenny for Christmas. I wanted a donkey since I was 4 and 10 years later I got one.:D
~~R

[Theloggerswife]

Now that is what I call a great Christmas Present!!! Please post pictures and keep us informed with your progress…..

Your Dad must have had a change of heart…..;)

[Robernson]

I am tellin’ you! We thought that this would be a nice place to start and see what happens. She is about 6 years old and the most friendly animal they had. She is colored like your “traditional” mule.(dark body/white nose) I am going to get my neighbor the,mule-man/farrier/mentor/duck wrangler(long story) to trim her hooves as they are absolutely aweful! Anyhow I figured I would let y’all know.
~~R

[Robert MoonShadow]

Hey, great for you, ‘R’!!

Bivol; some of what you point out is pretty accurate…dpending, of course, on the donkey! No, you can’t work a donkey to death…they’re too much self-preserving to be used in battle, either. Most animals – including humans – respond to kindness & praise with a major increase in effort to please.

Donkeys are especially attuned towards attitudes, it seems. I know my attitude when I first walk into the pasture sure seems to be “read” by my donks, from clean across the 26-acre pasture. If I’m in a hurry, or agitated about escaped goats, or… they just “give me space”. If I’m in a good mood or feeling silly or singing, then they’re apt to “sing” and come nosing around just to see what I’m about. My donks are pretty independant-minded, yet over the last several months, they’ve decided that they like me…and although they’ll still play ‘donkey games’ (do I wanna play ‘chase’?), if I come out with their halters & try to catch them, if I stand still & call them – or speak to one & not the other – they’ll come right up to me. I can now pick/clean Kinsey’s feet out with her standing loose…Jenny-Mae’s only good for lifting the front ones, unless she’s tied. I thought to work on this, getting the idea from Carl & Jason about teaching them to stand for harnessing w/out being tied. I haven’t gotten their harnesses paid for & sent to me yet, but I’m thinking that if they’ll stand loose for hoof-cleaning, then harnessing will be a breeze. Jenny-Mae doesn’t like the wheelbarrow yet, but is starting to reconsider; might have something to do with it being used for bringing Her Majesty her hay. :p So, I’m just doing basic things around them, and I’m pretty sure they’re learning about me: my moods & actions thereof (if he’s mad about something else, how will he act towards me?) and what I expect from them as to what the rules & acceptable behavior is. Kinsey has learned that I WILL NOT be intimidated or pushed around; Jenny-Mae recently learned that I am more stubborn than she is >>> I most definitely WILL ‘walk her down’ over 1 1/2 hours over the entire 26 acres, if she doesn’t come to me when I call to her. Just standing still was no longer acceptable…she had to actually come 5 steps to me, but we did enjoy that apple, once she did. 😀

[Robernson]

It is the plan to go and get her Saturday or Sunday. That way I will be off from school for a little while and be able to observe her for a little bit. Anybody that knows about the weather here on the east coast is bound to know about the snow. So we will get her when we can.
~~R

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