cheap horses and brand new cultivators

[mitchmaine]

Just got back from a few day trip out to mt. hope in ohio. A friend and I went out and he took some grain to get hulled, and in the meantime we drove around and visited some old friends. They were in the middle of shocking and some were picking their corn. Afterwards they would cut their stubble, rake and bale up the corn stalks for bedding in the barns under horses and cattle. Reminded me of a recent thread about bedding and thought I’d throw that one out as a possibility.

We also ran by pioneer and spent the rainy snowy afternoon talking with joe about the new cultivator hitch cart they are making. We got to see all the prototypes and why they didn’t make the grade, and finally the pretty close to finished one, with remarkably better steering, and the drop mech. Lowers the implement level to the ground, and it has a threaded lift mechanism attached to the pole to level out the cart, and it now has a metal pole with a telescoping neckyoke to fit different size horses. Great rig. Lots of time and money in the development to say the least. Seven tools that I can remember to go along withit. A 10”plow and disc, spring harrow, cultivator, ridge plow, hillers and potato digger if I can remember correctly. The only thing we didn’t get is the price which they are thinking about but it should be available this coming spring. You can buy the cart assembly itself alone and dream up your own attachments if you nwant, and it takes seconds to hook in an attachment. Pretty nice piece of equipment.

We also caught a horse sale Saturday morning on the way out at mt. hope auction. Mostly buggie horses, but they had about a hundred drafts in the morning. They had the meat sale last week or the week before so these horses we fairly sound. Some old horses and some young ones that nobody wanted to winter. Man did they go cheap. We saw four young mules sell for $6.25 x 4. That’s right. $25 dollars for the four mules. One nice mare brought $800. But teams went for $300 – $400 x 2. And the average horse was bringing about $200. And us without a horse trailer. We could have bought horses and left them on amish farms and gone out again to get them, but who wants to winter more horses? Still, there are a lot of people shopping for horses around here and there were some fairly sound and well broke (the best) horses going quickly. Oh well. We had a good trip. Their summer wasn’t any better than ours. One amish friend said it rained twice a week. Once for three days and once for four days.

[Ed Thayer]

Sounds like you had a good trip. Glad to hear everything went well. I would love to go to the Pioneer shop and see what they are working on.

Good thing I was not with you, I would have brought home more horses then I needed.

Ed

[jac]

Hey Mitch glad you had a good trip.. those horse prices sound like a sad reflection on the state of things.. same over here.. great if you want to buy but not so great in the overall picture.. is that the cultivator that was the result of imput from here at DAP ??? sounds like it will be an awesome piece of kit..John

[mitchmaine]

@jac 30110 wrote:

Hey Mitch glad you had a good trip.. those horse prices sound like a sad reflection on the state of things.. same over here.. great if you want to buy but not so great in the overall picture.. is that the cultivator that was the result of imput from here at DAP ??? sounds like it will be an awesome piece of kit..John

thanks john, i went back in the equipment section and found a thread by erika about putting ideas together for that cultivator. forgot about that, but it puts alot of things in order so to speak. i forgot to say they were also working on mounting a single row planter on the unit.

hey ed, i’d like to have seen you with a couple of those horses. i even saw a match for my single out there. odds are good with enough horses for sale. the spring sale out there is getting pretty big now. five days, i think. equipment day, perch and belgians each have their own sale days and crosses next and a free-for all on saturday. saturday horses aren’t even in the catalog and there are still 6-700 big horses in the book. lots to choose from.

[Donn Hewes]

Horses in Central NY are not cheap right now. The Amish community in NY state is growing fast, and I guess this causes the demand. I would think they would know how to get the horses from Ohio to here. My Amish neighbor just paid $2500 for a young pair. I also have a friend with a halflinger that can’t find a buyer for him, so I guess it just depends.

[Does’ Leap]

Hey Mitch,

I have never been to a big horse auction. You mentioned they have a day for selling crosses. How common are Belg/Perch crosses at those auctions? I am not in the market, just curious. I have a pair of bays that I really like and I am a big fan of hybrid vigor. Also, is it common to see stout, farm-style horses or do the taller, lankier horses predominate?

George

[dominiquer60]

A one row seeder, Mitch they have my attention. We started that conversation with the pioneer gentleman at the 2009 NEAPFD, and then it continued here. I like what I am hearing so far and can’t wait invite them to demo it at a future NEAPFD. Thanks for the update.

[Andy Carson]

I live about two hours east (and a little north) of Mount Hope, and would be happy to give horse(s) and driver(s) a break on their way back to the northeast. I have spare bedrooms, and a spare paddock too (although without shelter). It’s a long drive from Ohio to New England, and a stop-over might make this more do-able… PM me if interested.

[mitchmaine]

Hey George, my memory is that there are always a bunch of draft quarter horse and draft morgan crosses in the sale. There used to be a lot of spotted drafts, and that’s down but halflingers are showing up. Not many suffolks or clydes orshires but everything changes. I think the amish breed long legged drafts hoping for a sale to a big hitch and the result is a lot of big rangy horses. But there are still the chunks if you want to call them. Horses are how you find them.

Erika, those folk at pioneer are tops. John Morton asked me a few adjustment questions about his pioneer footlift plow, so I asked the same questions out there this week. They pulled one into the shop and we went over that plow from top to bottom. And I think if not for the rain we would have plowed that day. On three and four on a single bottom plow the draft is centered on the team of course, way into the land. The draft on the plow is centered in the share a few inces in from the landside. Draw a line from one to the other and where it passes over the horizontal hitch is where you hitch the evener. Excellent plow.

Donn, you’re a mule man. Four for $25. Could you go wrong. Very peculiar experience watching horses go so cheaply. $2500. Would have filled a good stock trailer. And andy, thanks for the great offer. We come by new castle on i-80 and I think it was there somewhere that we snapped an axle on the horse trailer one year.

[Donn Hewes]

Even with the low prices 25$ four mules sounds fishy. Was it just the end of a long auction or something? I think I could sell twenty teams of horses in my neighborhood right now. I bet they won’t be that cheap in the spring. My place would also make a good place to stop for anyone traveling to NE from Ohio.

[Andy Carson]

$25 does sound strange, but work horses are cheap around here and super cheap at this time of year. There is a good mix of the tall hitchy types and shorter stout types, and the shorter stouter types usually go cheaper (sometimes much cheaper). Both of my horses were cheap Amish “cast-offs” for one reason or another. My first was cheap because she was old (at 12) and “squatty” (at 16.1), and my second because she was “short” (at 16.3 hands) and “hot” (but plenty workable). I have enjoyed both and got alot of work out of them. There are good horses to be had for sure, and I am constantly shocked by horse prices in other parts of the country. I bet someone could make a buisness buying horses from Amish county in Ohio and selling them elsewhere.

[mitchmaine]

@Donn Hewes 30131 wrote:

Even with the low prices 25$ four mules sounds fishy. Was it just the end of a long auction or something? I think I could sell twenty teams of horses in my neighborhood right now. I bet they won’t be that cheap in the spring. My place would also make a good place to stop for anyone traveling to NE from Ohio.

exactly donn. it sounds funny to read and it was worse to watch. 10 am saturday morning withplenty of people watching. evidentally all those that wanted horses were someplace else. one of those wrong place and time things. sometimes a friend will bale you out and buy your team back for you and your out auction fees but that guy didn’t want those mules this winter. like andy says, another day and the same horses would so expensive you wouldn’t be able to buy them. go figure. thanks for the offer and we may take you up on it. what used to be a 16 hour ride through the night has become a 16 hour through the night if you know what i mean. we don’t jump out of the truck like we used to.

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