[Crabapple Farm]

You can’t win with strength – that is his game and it sounds like he is figuring out that he is bigger than you. That is a dangerous thing for him to learn.
You need to find a different interaction, one that he can’t win at.
I find the best results with pushy cows to be smacking their nose – it is not an interaction that they know how to respond to, so it takes them aback. Either with hand, whip, or boot. Ideally as soon as he lowers/shakes his head at you, not after he butts you.
For an Ox, I would seriously consider a nose ring. I’ve never used one, but it sounds like whip and halter are no longer going to work for you, at least not until you’ve reestablished dominance.

[Crabapple Farm]

I want one too, Cindy. Let me know where to send what money.
Tevis Robertson-Goldberg
Chesterfield, MA
crabapplefarm(at)verizon(dot)net

[Crabapple Farm]

On the angle question:
I think it makes more difference with big logs and a high hitch point.
A percentage of the draft at the chain hitch is transferred to tongue lift in relation to the degree that the hitch point is higher than the angle of draft. If the axles are in front of that point, more load will transfer to tongue lift. If the axles are behind that point, less (because that load is instead transferred into weight on the wheels). I hope that is clear.
If the axles are too far behind the chain hitch point, the log could hang in front of the axles, turning into weight on the tongue (instead of lift), which would also not be good.
Ideally, I suppose, the axles should be in line with the chain while in motion, whatever angle that is.

This is theoretical, based on a sketch I just made on a piece of paper. Someone with more logging experience with different carts can hopefully speak to how much practical difference it makes.
Harness type could also affect whether or not you would notice this effect.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

Cream content can absolutely be affected by milking technique. My wife does most of the milkings here these days, but we’ve shared milking duties over the years and some years had apprentices in the rotation. And some times we’ve noticed a pattern in the cream lines in the jars in the fridge, with one person getting consistently more cream than another. I think part of that is who the cow likes more – she won’t let down as much cream for a new face. But the other part is technique.
Like Carl, we typically have more milk than we need since we aren’t milking for sale, just for ourselves. But we definitely have a preference for rich milk.
This can be a problem with “sharing with the calf” and is why, when we can, we like to foster out the calf to another nurse cow.
I would say that the first “massaging of the udder” for us is incorporated into the pre-milking wash routine, and I think that having a wash routine that stimulates the udder is a great aid to let-down. We usually milk two quarters mostly out – not ’til the last drop, just until the flow noticeably slows, then switch to the other two, then go back to the first ones, then finish off the last. This gives a chance for the quarters to let down more fully, rather than trying to milk out completely in one go. If we notice that the cow doesn’t seem to be letting down completely, then we will massage some to encourage a more complete let down.
We pour some off for the barn cats early – they don’t need the cream.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

Our sheep are in electro-net (from premier) from May through November. I try to get them off pasture into a “real fence” before ice and snow starts falling, because the net really doesn’t like ice build up, and gets hard to move when the ground freezes.
Our net has killed more sheep over the years than our coyotes, due to entanglement. Almost always our fault – not tight enough, not hot enough, didn’t move them when we should have. We typically move every three days or so, and the “or so” part can be a problem. After twelve years, I’m starting to put up some woven wire around the perimeter, but the electric net is still going to be the main fence for the sheep. Mainly because we hay almost all the land that we graze, and I don’t want any permanent fences running through the fields.
We have poor drainage in a lot of our fields – often we have to rake hay out of the wet spots until it is on ground firm enough to run over with baler and wagon. The larger patches get grazed early.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

I have an I&J 3ph cart. It is a forecart with the lever-lift 3ph mechanism attached to it. It can only handle a very light tool – both the physical limits of what you can lift with the lever and the balance of the cart. I have a Cat 0 Brinly-Hardy 4′ disk (double gang, but very small) that pretty well maxes out its capacity. Basically, if you can’t move it by yourself, it’s too heavy for that 3ph setup. I might be able to bring it over to the Field Days if anyone wants to look at it.
I haven’t seen their hydraulic option, so don’t know what it is capable of. For what you want, you need something with four wheels, to handle that weight. For field prep, that would be fine, but I don’t think you would want to try to cultivate with a rig that big.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

I’m mainly grazing sheep and cattle, so am looking to optimize forage quality. With Draft Horses, that probably does mean something different . . .
I’m more of an ox man, so take anything I say with a grain of salt. The horses we have had all seemed to do okay on fairly rich pasture – for ease of management we graze them in the same group as our milk cow (the “coming up to the barn daily” group). Yes, they put on a few extra pounds in the summer, but we don’t feed any grain, and I like to see animals going into the winter in good condition.
The horses mainly have not gotten the cover crop grazing duty – mainly because of the logistics of getting back to the barn daily from the crop fields.
Early Spring grazing of Rye or Wheat could definitely cause digestion problems if you aren’t smart and slow about the transition from hay. Oats would be much later, after they had already transitioned to pasture.
Stage of growth of forage is going to make a big difference in how rich it is. I would think that once it got stemmy, the roughage would balance the sugars.

-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

There are lots of options and variables.
Your soil and climate are significant variables. Also, the rest of your pasture – when do you most want to have extra pasture available? Early spring? Mid summer? That will affect your choice.
For short pasture rotation with vegetables, I like to use grains mixed with clovers. Winter wheat is my choice for fall seeding for early spring grazing. Medium Red, White, Alsike, and Yellow Sweet Clover can all be seeding in the fall to overwinter and will give good growth the following summer and fall. I usually do a mix, depending on what I want to do the following season. Rye and winter Triticale also work well for early grazing, and grow at slightly lower temps so produce earlier. My wheat fields are usually a week or two ahead of the rest of the pastures, Rye should be a week or so earlier than that. Vetch and Sweet Clover are not as palatable as Red, White, and Alsike clovers.
For spring seeding, I really like Oats. Barley can be used, but you need to graze before the beards get too developed because they can cause sores in mouths. Crimson clover is nice and fast growing for spring seeding with oats.
The downside of grains is that they often don’t regrow well. The clovers (except for Crimson) do regrow, and make a nice pasture, but it might be too lush for some animals.

If you want to seed once and graze all season, my recommendation for New England (based on my soils in Western MA) is seed a mix of Beardless Winter Wheat (the tallest variety you can find, otherwise rye), Medium Red, White, and Alsike clovers, and Perennial Ryegrass. If your soils are well drained and not acidic, skip the Alsike.

Disking and replanting after grazing can be helpful with weed control. Like a bare fallow, just without the bare part. Just make sure you do it timely enough that weeds aren’t going to seed.

Basically, in the vegetable rotation, I am not establishing pasture, I am grazing cover crops. You just want to select your cover crops based on palatability.
I’ve thought about using corn for a warm season cover crop to graze, but have never done it. I’m leery of Sorghum-sudan, because of potential toxicity. BMR varieties are supposed to be fine, and the one time we tried it there were no problems, but I still don’t use it regularly.

-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

I have had problems with hydrants that freeze up because they don’t drain properly. My soil is heavy, drainage is slow, and the water table is high in winter/spring. When the groundwater table is high, water fills the riser, then freezes.
I had to dig a trench to daylight and put in a drainage pipe from the bottom of the hydrant to ensure that everything drained and stayed drained. You need to make sure there is somewhere for the water to go when the hydrant drains.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

I got a pair of Garford finger weeders this summer from Willsie up in Canada. $650 for the pair. They will have a display at the NOFA summer conference in a couple weeks.
http://willsie.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_7&products_id=263
Like Kress, they have all rubber fingers. Unlike Kress/Kult, they don’t come in different hardnesses. My soil is pretty much all the same and I like to cultivate as much as I can without switching tools around, so one size fits all works for me.
I’ve used them with a cultivating tractor so far, not horses. We’re still working our pony up to real cultivation work, and once we get him up to speed, I’ll need to rig up a one pony toolbar.
They don’t do as much once the weeds get too big (current state of affairs here, with frequent thunderstorms preventing effective cultivation for the past three weeks), but I was really liking the job they did earlier in the season before 3″ of rain kept me out of the field for over a week… They can get in between larger crops well (set to overlap in established corn, beans, kale, onions, peppers, eggplant) or very close to more tender things (things just coming up or things like recently transplanted lettuce, which I set them with about a 2″ gap for) without killing things. The only time I was seeing crops killed was when a finger pushed a stone through the plant. With trash or larger weeds, they can bury or clog such that they take out the crop. But still less than regular sweeps.
The Garford style uses an adjustable Danish S-tine type shank, which matches my toolbar and matches I&J, Annie’s All-in-One, and a few other newer cultivators (though you might need a different clamp). For a McCormick or such, you would need to rig something up, but shouldn’t be too hard.
I would highly recommend.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

As one place to start when looking at a property, the NRCS Soil Survey can be helpful. In the book for this area, there is a chart of Land Capability and Yields per Acre of Crops and Pasture. For Grass-Clover, the range they give for different soils in this neck of the woods is 2.5-7.8 AUM, which is a pretty significant variation.
AUM stands for Animal Unit Months, with an Animal Unit being one cow, horse, mule, or five sheep or goats. Elsewhere often defined as 1000lbs live weight. Not a very scientific or accurate unit of measurement, but there are too many variables to get too accurate.
So, 7.5 AUM/Acre (which is what most of my fields are) would mean that you would need 1.6 acres per 1000 lbs of horse. If your soils will only produce 2.5 AUM/Acre, you would need 4.8 acres.
The NRCS AUM estimate is based on a “high level of management” – I think the best intensive grazing could yield quite a bit more than that, but even the best soil will become unproductive if not managed well.
You should be able to get a copy of the NRCS Soil Survey for your area from your local field office, though it might be available online now.

I would second that neighbors are important. Self-sufficiency is well and good, but good neighbors are even better. In hay making weather neighbors who also make hay are invaluable during the inevitable equipment failure with rain coming. And when starting out, it is great to have neighbors who will hay your fields for you and/or sell you hay.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

Pulsed grazing/mowing is definitely the way to go. Our fields were all goldenrod and fern when we got here, and we were able to bring them back to grass and clover pretty quickly (a few years) through timely grazing combined with mowing. My cattle and sheep will eat Sensitive Fern when it isn’t too tough (that’s probably the fern you have, in these parts in a goldenrod field). Cattle will eat the leaves and tips off Goldenrod if they’re hungry, but not enough to kill it, so some amount of mowing is needed. Goldenrod recovers from mowing in the summer much more slowly than grass and clover. You can graze first, and mow off what they leave. I would probably put them on a small paddock and start rotating them. If you give them the whole 5 acres, they’ll be able to keep satisfied with picking out the good bits until they kill them off – by rotating you can give the grass and clover a chance to grow back and crowd out the goldenrod. If they are starting on one side, you can mow off the other right off, and let it grow back a bit before they get to it. At this point in the year, with this rain we just got, the grass is going to jump.
Rotating is a lot more work than just fencing in the perimeter, but it makes a huge difference quite quickly. In years when I’ve gotten lazy (i.e. focusing more on the vegetables) and moved the cattle more slowly in bigger blocks, the pastures have definitely been set back.

[Crabapple Farm]

I think more critical than the wheel spacing is the horse spacing (neck yoke and evener). You want their feet centered between rows. Ideally, the wheel spacing matches. But you can get away with, say, 32″ rows even if the cultivator wheels can’t get closer than 36″ (if your horses are comfortable at the narrower spacing). In that instance, I would set the sweeps behind the wheels NOT in line with the wheels, but in line with where you want the feet to go, as that line is what you want the horses to follow on subsequent passes.

[Crabapple Farm]

Hey Michelle,
Row spacing should equal mature tree width + alley width.
The alley width for a 5′ sicklebar should be at least 10′, to allow for a mower pass in each direction, for a 4′ one-horse you would want 8′. If you got a center cut mower of some sort, you could reduce the alley width to a single pass, then use a sicklebar to reach under the drip line to mow under the mature trees. With the M111 25′ would be good between rows, but you could go a little closer in-row (15′?). With the B9 you could bring your rows in to 20′, half that in the row. Unless you want to go super intensive espalier-style, where you prune your trees narrow (or tall) in one direction so that the horses can walk much closer to the trunk than with a typical apple-tree. If you want your horses to walk under the branches, though, you need standard rootstock (and a tall ladder…).
With the clearance on the mower, you could put some low herbaceous plantings in the alley (or blueberries, which you already have in places), but anything taller should be in the row with the trees.
My recommendation for starting would be to lay out some hedgerow lines this year around grazing paddocks, protected with electric from the horses, and infill those blocks in later years. Grazing the horses is going the be the easier way to manage the largest area, until you get a mower. If you find a good center-cut mower or a one-horse mower, you can infill at a tighter spacing than if you end up with a 5′ sicklebar.
B9 trees can go tight enough that it might be worth putting them in an intensive block that you can only mow with a scythe. Mowing with a sicklebar is going to prevent you from getting the real space efficiencies from that rootstock.
I think long term, larger trees might be more productive per-acre for you, if you are managing with a sicklebar, because the tree-width to alley-width ratio is better. But B9 makes sense to get things going more quickly.
-Tevis

[Crabapple Farm]

I did some “double plowing” years back when at Howell Farm in NJ. We would do a round with the moldboard, then switch to a walking chisel plow run about 6″ deep in the bottom of the furrow. We didn’t chisel every furrow, I think about every three or four – this was for field culture where the whole field was getting plowed. That was a single pair of Devon oxen (~1600# each) in pretty heavy soil. A larger team in lighter soil would be able to go deeper.
My limited experience with a Yeoman’s keyline plow even longer ago than that is that they do indeed pull easier than the chisel and subsoiler designs available in this country. … Market Farm’s website says that they have finally gotten them in. Rigging them to a forecart or walking toolbar would be a project but doable. I would want a spring or something in the attachment if you expect to hit stones at that depth.
The walking toolbar that I used at Howell Farm for the Chisel plow was like I&J’s walking plow/potato plow, where the share could be taken off and replaced with a different bottom.
-Tevis

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