[JBurch]

This makes me feel somewhat better about keeping my hay burning horses around. My son and I hauled up a load horse manure (regrettable with a GMC PU- not DAP) from the location we have been feeding our horses. As far as I know this is the only ‘clean’ manure around since we rarely medicate our horses and up till this year we know the hay has been chemical free. I would bet the prairie hay I bought this year is chemical free too since it has weeds in it.

Now I just need to get busy teaching some of the hay burners to drive.

I did not know I needed to cover my compost pile to preserve nutrients. Thanks, Gulo.

[JBurch]

Does a person have to be careful where he get his manure? For example I don’t have enough animals at present to produce enough ‘clean’ manure to satisfy my need for fertilizer. If I were to go to one of my neighbors who has an excess of manure do I need to worrry about residual antibiotics, growth hormones and other pharmaceuticals in the manure and then contaminating my crops? This has been on my mind for years but recently even more a concern because of news reports of waste treatment plants in big cities having difficulting removing pharmaceuticals from the waste they were treating.

[JBurch]

@Howie 4054 wrote:

That year May raised five calves, and Dazy raised three.

What are you talking about- one cow raising five calves? As a surrogate mother? :confused:

[JBurch]

I was watching some of the Youtube videos linked from this site and I noticed the soil being plowed acted very mellow (at least that is how I perceived it). MY soil is pretty stiff clay. Is there a chance plowing some types of soil (not rock) would be too difficult to be practical? I assume that if they did it 100 yeas ago with animals, I could do it now too. I have been adding lime and organic matter to my garden areas to loosen the soil up but it has to be plowed first to incorporate amendments. We are doing this now with shovels, muscle and sweat and dreaming of a better way some day.

[JBurch]

I am not seeing oxen events in the central US. Everyone here is stuck on horses and mules I guess.

Another question I have is how much power would a person get out of 2 Milking Shorthorn cows? Would they pull a plow for half a day? Generally, I am more concerned about not having enough work for them to do rather than over-working them. But if 2 cows can’t even pull a plow that may be a problem.

[JBurch]

I appreciate all the input-it has been helpful. Though, reading all these comments does incite the envy in me. I want to go out an get my heifers right now, but a few other things have to happen first–buildings and fences to build, money to accumulate. I do have a horse that needs trained to drive and others that just need ridden so maybe I can placate the envy by doing those things while I wait. Maybe I need to sell a couple horses to fund my cow procurement.

Also, I am a little bummed out that most of the oxen driving events are in the northeast. I have not found any activities on the internet in the central plains states. If someone here knows of events in the central US that include oxen driving, I would appreciate a heads up.

Again, thanks for taking time to answer the question.

JB

[JBurch]

Marko & Tevis, thanks for the replies and the link to the article. Very helpful.

I am thinking I will leave the calves on part time just so I can milk once per day. When I say I, I mean my children. If this happens it will be mostly their project with me helping as much as I can when my day job is not interfering.

My daughter did this with her goats last year and it worked pretty well. We have some aquantances here in Kansas that run a decent size dairy who leave the calves on the cow except for some amount of time prior to their once-per-day milking. I am sure you folks here on this forum know much more than I about this strategy so educate me as you see fit.

[Author]

Posts