[Tim Harrigan]

You don’t want 50 pigs? That is ridiculous.

[Tim Harrigan]

Andy, a shallow springtooth harrow, 2 inches or so might be best to uproot the new growth. One problem with a disk is that it keeps chopping the rhizomes up into smaller and smaller pieces and each piece can send up a new shoot if the conditions are right. Cleaning trash out of the harrow is not much fun either. You might want to consider tillage until Oct 1 and then going with a cereal rye cover with early spring tillage to take out the rye.

[Tim Harrigan]

Andy, a lot of the grass that is re-growing is probably quack grass that sprouts from both seed and underground rhizomes. It is really persistent. Tillage kills it by uprooting it and then dessicating it. If you are getting the rains alot of us have had this summer it is probably not killing by dessication very well, and the disc really mixes the soil deep and pulls weed seeds up from the seed bank. Maybe you should till shallow a couple of times and seed the oat mix about Sept 1. That will probably give you a good 6 weeds of oat/pea growth for a cover.

[Tim Harrigan]

Rob, nice job sticking with them and not being distracted and discouraged by the minor set-backs. Year 2 usually has a new set of challenges but if you are clear about your expectations and fair in the assessment of it you will have a fine team. It is clear that you enjoy working with them and continue to find new things for them to do. That will continue to challenge all of you to refine your skill and responsiveness.

[Tim Harrigan]

Carl, I agree, there is a tendency for folks to use draft animals like they are a machine. We usually have excess power when we work with machines so we tend to build the excess into our approach. But working with draft animals is about energy conservation, how to accomplish the task with an energy cost that is appropriate for the team, the task at hand, and the amount of work that needs to be accomplished. So the assessment of how long and how big is the skid load, how many and how deep are the tillage operations, what is accomplished by the tillage operation, how big is the mower cutterbar, frequency of tedding, raking etc. have real meaning when they challenge the limited power of a team. This need to be clever in the approach and perceptive to the needs of the team and task are things that make working with draft animals challenging and rewarding. I suppose it could be frustrating, though, for those who find the transition difficult.

[Tim Harrigan]

Bivol, good, I look forward to it. It would be best to discuss it with Joe, RH editor, before you put a lot of time into it to make sure it is in line with the types of articles he has in mind.

[Tim Harrigan]

Good luck in your fight against the EAB. We have had it in MI for probably 3-4 years now and it has spread across the state even with prohibition against transporting firewood etc. What was a solid fence row of mature trees now has big gaps and the stack of firewood is going to be big this winter. A lot of dead trees along the roadsides. This is a bad deal.

[Tim Harrigan]

Yes, I agree. Bivol, you have written many things that I think would be great contributions to RH.

[Tim Harrigan]

Bivol: The articles in RH are not typical articles written by a journalist. They are written by draft animal practicianers and RH pays them for the finished article. So anyone of us could write and submit an aritcle and if Joe thinks it is appropriate and of suitable quality he would likely buy it for publication. So you would be a writer, not exactly a journalist.

[Tim Harrigan]

I have discussed this briefly with Joe and he is actively seeking more articles on oxen. There are no experts out there other than the ox community so it is up to them (us) to step up. RH is sort of like this web site. It is an important source of information and education but it requires practitioners to contribute to the discussion. Teamsters with all levels of experience can contribute and it is not just in offering solutions to problems. It is just as important to articulate significant and common problems. That is where the interaction starts.

[Tim Harrigan]

The challenge with cattle is that they are not very cooperative patients. If you try to wrap it they will fight you in that process, and assuming you are successful in wrapping it they will then try their best to remove it, likley causing more damage in the process. I know someone who tried to replace a lost shell and it just ended up infected. I suppose an anti-inflamatory might help some, but in cases like this some pain serves a purpose in teaching them to protect it as much as possible. There is always an urge to do something in these situations but I guess in this case the best thing is to just leave it alone. I just cleaned him up and am making a extra effort to keep him comfortable by keeping the flys away.

[Tim Harrigan]

Andy, that is quite a way to move the linkage on the doubletree but it should be OK as long as you are not using a pole on a wagon or implement. Ground skidding would probably be fine when they are pulling, starts might take a little more practice. From what I know of a breast collar they are really best for light draft like a cart or wagon. If you are really interested in teaming them up for work you should think about a standard collar. Don’t worry about the size difference. If the evener can be adjusted to distribute the load correctly and the riding horse has the right attitude I doubt if it will be much of a problem.

[Tim Harrigan]

It looks quite clean. How did you clear the under brush? Did you chip the tops and spread them over the surface? Stumps are right at ground level?

[Tim Harrigan]

Carl, this is very interesting. Can you elaborate on what we see in each of these images?

[Tim Harrigan]

Ed, let us know what you find out.

[Author]

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