[dominiquer60]

I will be bringing this Ox to the Draft Animal-Power Field Days, $2,200 takes him home with yoke and traces. We will be using him in the Thursday Oxen Workshop and throughout the weekend, so if you would like to have a day to get to know him this will be a great opportunity for you.

[dominiquer60]

Exciting News! Did you find out if he shipped a pole with it?

[dominiquer60]

Thank goodness for great crews! If I can get my great crew together, I will try to make it back for Sat and Sun so I can hang out with the West Coasters that are starting to flock this way (Washington State and Alaska). I am looking forward to meeting you and many other new faces in a few weeks, safe travels!

Erika

[dominiquer60]

A word of warning, Alsike clover is toxic to horses, cattle may eat eat, but horses will usually avoid it. Oats make a good nurse crop this time of year. White clover is always good in a mix, it can take a grazing, holds the soil nicely and provide some good N at plow down. You only need a few pounds an acre. Red clover makes more tons an acre, but can be rich if there is too much in the pasture, but it is good to include a legume or two. Bluegrass is another tough one, it can fill in between the timothy and clover. Check out Lancaster Ag for seed, they have a great selection and customer service, http://www.lancasterag.com/HomePage.

[dominiquer60]

Congratulations on the second child and now having that team you wanted. Enjoy all the new adventures and feel free to ask any questions or share your adventures with us.

Be Well,

Erika

[dominiquer60]

This technique with oxen is new to me, but I am familiar with this technique with equines. I can see how a baby running along mother would get used to the work environment, and the older animal would hopefully demonstrate good work behavior.

Many may not have an older ox to hitch to, or having to yoke 2 dramatically different sized animals could prove difficult for some. One or more older animals can “break” a younger animal to working, but to me the animal is not really trained, just following what appears to be the leader, the older animal(s).

When I work animals, bovine or equine, I always want to be the clear leader of the partnership, therefore I like to train young cattle myself, that way I can only blame myself for any bad habits. I feel that this is an effective way to have the cattle look to me for commands rather than a teammate. This is just my humble opinion.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I found a great truck at this place, the owner goes to the southern auction every week in CT. If he doesn’t have something, he might be able to find you something. He vets his vehicles well and was a pleasure to work with. It may be out of your way, but for me it was worth the 5 hour drive to the place.

http://northcountrymotorsinc.com/

Best Wishes,
Erika

[dominiquer60]

I seem to have problems attaching photos, feel free to email me for pictures.
Erika

[dominiquer60]

From what I remember of the conversation, the #9 High Gear is better for the slower oxen (still may need to keep after them), but a good quicker team can handle the likes of a regular #9.

[dominiquer60]

A wise man once said, “Don’t trust your horses, trust that you know them.” (2007 NEAPFD Keynote by Lynn Miller)

I am glad that everyone was reasonably well Daniel. It is easy to get complacent, especially with the “easy” animals.

I caused a 20′ runaway the other day because I didn’t think anything of throwing a few pieces of re-bar on top of a hog panel to get them out of the way. Thankfully I made the conscious decision to keep the cultimulcher tines engaged with the soil, while I hopped off to move the metal. It was a hard pull for them as the near mare led the bolt across the 20′ of headland sod. They were gearing down to stop at my second “whoa”, and the third prevented a second (or more) potato plant from getting crushed by the front roller. I walked up to them with much praise for stopping before they thrashed my delicate “Rose Gold” new potatoes. I did bend an Danish S-tine backing out of the potatoes, but I can live with that, a small price for my complacency. I know that the near mare can be randomly edgy, the C130 flying low, was no problem, the impact wrench in the near-by farm shop, no big deal, re-bar on hog panel, just the ticket that day.

We never know exactly what will happen, so always be aware. Also be thankful for the small reminders, they are easier to endure than the big ones.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Rye straw is in but musty, not a single bale of hay yet. We had snow into April, then a dust bowl, then 3.5 inches all at once, then dry, now back to wet. We missed a good window while we were busy planting corn and other crops, then we didn’t want to chance the slight chances of rain that ended up being good hay weather. Reva got hers down with a good yield last week when there were a few chances of showers that never happened.

[dominiquer60]

It is amazing what they will find to “hang up” on. As much as we try to prevent mishaps, a good “whoa” is the best tool for dealing with these mishaps. It is so much easier fixing a problem when the animal(s) are looking to you for leadership and problem solving. A good whoa has certainly gotten me out of a few situations I hope to never be in again. With bridle rubbing, I hate cutting their wind with the throat latch and try to prevent them from rubbing in the first place, but it does happen once in a while. If a bridle does come off it is never a problem as long as we have whoa.

• This reply was modified 10 years ago by dominiquer60.

[dominiquer60]

Thanks for keeping up with this project Carl. If Les’s and your efforts can help DAPNet, that would be great, either way the fact that these plans can be shared in the future makes them priceless.

[dominiquer60]

“Just so I understand correctly, are you recommending each single row of crops be 36″ from center to center from each other? Which would mean at 24 rows of that crop spacing, at 150′ long, will total an area equivalent of about a 1/4 acre field?”

Correct Keith, at 36 inches center to center, with rows 150′ long, 24 rows will give you near a 1/4 acre. I like 1/4 acres as they are a manageable size. You can plow it and harrow it the same day if needed, with help you can plant/seed it all in a day if needed, and like I said before, for planning the math is fairly easy.

You can make do with a good single horse cultivator. Mine is rusted up and not adjustable, so I have to go down between each row twice, but it gets the job done. Using a good 2 horse straddle row cultivator takes a little getting used to, but once the horses understand the job it becomes fun, for me it is a wonderful Zen task that I enjoy immensely. So if you folks come across a good McCormick Deering cultivator, don’t pass it by. It may also be good to have some kind of leveling devise, even something like a planker (http://daclresources.org/forums/topic/planker-for-secondary-tillage/) would be cheap and easy for now. Leveling and smoothing the ground makes for more even/easier seeding and cultivating. Even dragging a heavy post behind the disk harrow will help, you will want it on an angle and slightly wider than the disk harrow, we use chain to attach ours.

I was in your shoes not too long ago, I had 10 years of working vegetables with tractors, and more years working with horses, but I never married my 2 passions together until I moved to CT. You folks are always more than welcome here, you can always ask more questions here and search for subjects, that is how I found the planker link to a previous discussion. Best of luck to you and Blue Star, do what you can even if it is just planting cover crops until you can devote more time next season. Keep the questions coming 🙂

[dominiquer60]

Keith Welcome to DAPNet,

There are several things to consider before setting up your garden. Head lands harvest lanes, row spacing, etc. What kind of equipment will you be using? single horse cultivator, a riding straddle row cultivator, a section of harrow? What kind of equipment are you still looking for, will it fit into the system that you develop now? Will you be using a tractor at all, and how does it fit into the system?

Without knowing what you have to work with it is hard to recommend specific details, so I can share with you how I developed the spacial arrangement of my garden. Hopefully this will shed some light on the possibilities when developing your own system. Each farm is different, so hopefully others will chime in too.

I have a few different shaped fields, but for the most part I have left a 20′ head land at the ends of them all (running perpendicular to the rows). I use 20′ to swing a team around and for the tractor that takes all of 20′ to do a multi-point turn. I use horses for most of my work, but rely on a Rain Flo water wheel transplanter that I have to use with the tractor. I don’t irrigate so using a water wheel is extremely helpful to give the transplants a fighting chance at surviving. All plots have at least a 10′ grass harvest lane surrounding them for easy access with equipment, these run parallel to the rows.

Tighter row spacing allows for more crops in a given area but becomes more difficult to cultivate without horses stepping on crops, wider row spacing allows for more error, but also allows more space for weeds to develop. I chose 36″ for a multitude of reasons. I use a Water transplanter and the widest width that 2 wheels will go so that I can plant 2 rows at a time, is 36″. My McCormick Deering riding 2 horse 1 row cultivator is adjustable to various row spacing. With wheels adjusted at 36″ there is more of a limit to the range of movement (of various levers and adjustments) than I care to accept from my cultivator. So I set my wheels 38″ apart, my horses 36″ apart and still have a good range of adjustment while I am cultivating. The wheel width is not noticed when rear sweeps are set at 36″ apart, then I have a good mark to go off of if I am making beds or marking rows. I also like 36″ because frankly the math is easier when calculating various needs like fertilizer, and plants needed for so many feet of garden space. Since 36″ met many of my needs, when I ordered new equipment like my sprayer, I was able to custom order it to meet my spacing. I plant my hot crops (tomatoes, cucs, squash, pumpkins) at 6′ between rows, they need the extra space and we need the room to maintain the crops and harvest them, so thankfully 6’=72″ which is 2×36″, the 6′ rows fit nicely into the garden in reality and on paper.

I would ideally like to have all my rows the same length 150′. 1.75 acres are set up this way, but in order to maximize production the other 1 acre, I have to deal with 160′ to 200′ lengths as well. I like 150′ because 24 rows makes a nearly quarter acre section, this makes planning rotations, calculating cover crop seed and soil amendments all easier. Some of the row cover that I like to use comes in 50′ increments and 150′ of it is easier for me to handle alone. When hand weeding or thinning 150′ is less daunting. I do a lot of succession cropping and I like to plant and seed crops in full or half rows, often times 200+’ of Broccoli Raab is just way more than I need at once, so 150 works well for my crop planning. As the farm (owned by Sam’s parents) transitions from dairy to what ever the future brings, I hope to have more room for my garden for more cover cropping and to whittle my long rows down to a consistent 150′ across all garden plots.

Let us know what you have to work with and what your future equipment plans may be so that we can help where we can.

I look forward to helping one of Pam’s and Paul’s students as much as I can from a far,

Erika

[Author]

Posts