[Billy Foster]

My advice is:
Listen to people that are successfully doing what you want to do.
Don’t try to reinvent the “wheel”, just do what those experts say.
My method for conquering the unknown is to ask questions and do research; when I find common answers from several different resources then I trust it as truth.
Don’t embarrass yourself by making excuses
Work harder than anyone you know

[Billy Foster]

I just sold a few trailer loads of aged field stones out of one of the rougher grazing pastures we have. problem is they do not grow very fast so i figure it is not too sustainable.

[Billy Foster]

We are going! very excited. You say it is a ways off but we are, as I am sure you are, planning our year so we can take that time away from the farm. You are concerned about hay, I am trying to plan the grazing schedule (ewes with lambs) so I can have 10 days worth of moves in the same pasture all set up before we go.

[Billy Foster]

I am in the process of getting one ready for this summer as well. BW Macnair really helped me with parts. I also have had really good luck going right though JD for parts as well. Get the “Haying with Horses” book from L. Miller, it has the No.4 manual in it as well as some good general repair info.

[Billy Foster]

A little small for me, thanks for the info 76shovel

[Billy Foster]

Not that I am looking (just incase my girlfiend is snooping) how big is she hight/weight

[Billy Foster]

George
I have pondered your question many times. I use a bucket tractor to load/flip compost and clean the barn yard. My eventual goal is to remove the tractor all together. One of the ideas I had was to compost the manure on a concrete dock and pull the spreader up next to the dock to load it. To load the spreader I would use a push blade, set up like a buck rake. I figured one would have to break the pile down/apart from the composting size before pushing it.
I have seen a couple tractors converted to electric, an old AC and a Deere. Our farm is all PV so I have thought about the electric angle of approach as well 😉
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Juliana
I am sure you saw Donn Hewes response on your other thread. I agree with him completely. I may be a new teamster but I have been managing horses (warm bloods) for years and that is basically what I have done in the past to get horses over being separated. Truthfully there has always been another horse at home with the one being left but they were not in the same paddock and I am not confident that they provided much comfort.
In some fashion take one horse for a walk on a lead rope so the two are out of sight of each other. The one staying should be in a place that they can’t hurt themselves and most importantly can’t get out of. You do not want to be training that horse to break out of its paddock when they are separated. Maybe, at first, leave someone at the barn with that horse to scratch them and give them some attention. Take the other horse down the road until they are out of sight. Find some good grass or bring an apple or 2 to distract it. The goal is to get things relatively quiet before heading back to the barn. Remember to set them up to succeed. Think about what tools you have to gradually build their behavior into what you want. I like to strive for smaller goals at first and being successful as opposed to “getting dragged by my new pony when he spooks at the tire being dragged behind him because I asked for too much too soon” :).
I do not like horses that “forget about listening” when they think they are heading back to the barn. As a rule I will not finish working the horse until they walk to the barn under my terms. If they start being rude I simply take them away from the barn, go out a ways and try it again. Sometimes I will stop a couple times and have them stand for a second or 2, whatever I think they can handle at the time.
The more you work with these guys the more they will learn to trust you. Just work with them as much as you can. You are as new to them as they are to you. As they get used to your place they will probably be less jumpy and easier to introduce to “scary” things. I remember something that I heard at a talk at the Common Ground Fair in Maine, I think it was given by Bradbury Johnson, he said even if he can’t get out and work his horses he always does something with them every day even if it is just brushing them and cleaning their feet. I think of this a lot and it helps me remember how big the relationship component of working with and around horses is.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

I think we are making good progress :o, I am very happy!

http://uponthehillfarm.blogspot.com/2012/01/very-good-day.html

[Billy Foster]

I would long line (ground drive) that spooky pony all over the place. It will give you and him a safer way to get used to all the “spooky” things around your place. Ground drive the other pony as well. When you get harnesses do the same thing but with the harnesses on before progressing to pulling anything.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Juliana
Congratulations, I am a few months ahead of you but am involved in the same process as you are about to undertake. A few months ago we bought two Haffys to use on our farm. They both had driven but had not worked together before. Oh yes and I am green as grass driving horses :).
My experience is this:
Find a mentor, they can really help you with the small details which speed up the development of the team and most importantly keep you safe.
You mentioned that you train dogs, I have trained and worked dogs for a long time and I have had a lot of luck training the horses using those same methods i.e. set them up to succeed, positive reinforcement, repetition and consistency.
I found a lot of security ground driving in a round pen. I spent a lot of time driving back and forth inside the pen. I started just ground driving them single with their harness on, then I would drop a trace chain and drag that around, then the other, then a spreader, then a tire. I did this until I could not get them to jump regardless of what loud “thing” I dragged behind them. THEN I hooked them side by side with a butt chain and a yoke and started the entire process of dropping the traces and hooking them up to a double tree again. When you think you are ready to head out of the pen get the help of a friend to hold a halter rope on the “spookier” horse as insurance.
Work on teaching them to stand. I didn’t think this was a big issue before but quickly discovered that to be safe and organized the horses must stand well.
Like with the dogs if the horses make a mistake they have not done anything wrong, you have just failed to prepare them for the situation you put them in.

Best of luck
Billy
Foster Farm

[Billy Foster]

Lots of variables to think about: Are you planning on just some ewes or wethers? What do you have for fencing, do you use dogs to move the cattle/sheep. Do you plan on lambs?
We keep a small flock of sheep, about 20 ewes that we use to produce market lambs. We live in an area that gets considerable coyote pressure our solution has become livestock guard dogs and tight net fences.
If you plan on just some adult sheep I would look at something like Cheviots, they are tough as nails and will put up a fight against a coyote. The fencing would have to be more than a couple pieces of smooth wire but not as tight as if you were keeping lambs. In this scenario you could probably use a llama and have pretty good success; As long as you don’t use a dog to move your cattle in a MIG type system. I have had a couple Llamas and they were both too much trouble for me. Our operation requires us to move the sheep every day during the grazing season, both llamas that I had would either go after the dog or go in the wrong direction causing the flock to slip up. Too much stress for everyone involved. I can see where a Llama would work really nice in a set stocking situation.
If you plan on some lambs then the fences will need to be much tighter. We use livestock guard dogs and electro-netting with a strong fencer. I think the electro-netting, well electrified, could do a very good job protecting a group of lambs by itself. For us the dogs work very well at keeping predators informed that they are not welcome.
I am not sure how much protection cattle could provide for sheep. Coyotes get smart really fast. A healthy adult ewe, or wether, Hill Breed sheep like the Cheviot, could provide some protection for itself from the one off investigation from the local coyote BUT if you have an active hunting group of coyotes and there is no were else for them to get a meal, they will eventually cause you trouble, even for a full grown sheep. A couple years ago the news paper ran a story about a horse that was taken down by a group 40 miles from us.
All of this is my opinion so please take it as that. Highland cattle…they are some tough buggers themselves I hear!!
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Thanks rod44
He is a good size ~1300 and a very good natured horse, a pleasure to work with. 🙂
He is a keeper

[Billy Foster]

John
I am about as green at being a teamster as one can get, so my information needs to be taken with that in mind. We just bought 2 Haflingers from a Hitch horse teamster. Both were a little high energy at first but are quieting down really fast. I have just been doing a lot of stopping and hanging around kind of jobs with them. It appears to me that they are calming down the more they realize I DON’T want them to trot everywhere and that standing around is part of the job. I am very happy with both these guys, and I have NO desire to do anything but work with them i.e. no showing or anything like that. One of them “Tank” I got because he did not match the other horses in his hitch and the owner said he was not “hitchy” enough. The first time I drove him, before buying him, I was a little nervous about how anxious and high energy he was. He is 9 and has always been a hitch horse but in several days he is relaxing. Tank has taken to this type of work very well. Here is a picture I took yesterday of us pulling some dead wood up to the landing, we took several trips. So for what it is worth I say I would definitely look at hitch horses. If you look at the personality of the horse I bet it may be a good place to get a deal on a horse that would rather work on a farm than be on a hitch team.
Billy

[Billy Foster]

Here is my project…I mean place. In the last couple years my fiancé, Paulette, and I have chiseled this place out of the woods. We have a beautiful place on one of the highest points of Poland Maine. We keep a small flock of sheep for market lambs and will be selling produce starting in the spring. I am new to draft horses and this weekend marks the start of us using horses to replace tractor work (twitching firewood). The best part about this place is Paulette is as into this lifestyle as I am, the other day she said “we should go to Claire MI next June for Horse Progress days” , beat that :D.

http://www.uponthehillfarm.blogspot.com/

Billy Foster

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