[near horse]

Andy, you are a busy guy! Nice work. Please don’t take my questions as criticism but just thinking aloud and inquiry. So ….

In the leaf spring design is the leaf only held in place on the angle iron with the middle compression bolt and the ends are completely free? If they are free is that intentional?(I ask because in other applications the ends of the springs are anchored to mounted shackles….).

Also, do you think that the original arc of the spring before compression would impact how the leaf setup performs? I recall that some of the offroad enthusiasts used to have their leaf springs re-arced to make the curvature more severe.

[near horse]

Good one mitch!

harrowin’ addict

[near horse]

Plenty of energy and adequate protein should put weight on IF your horse: 1) can chew the feed sufficiently 2) doesn’t have a huge parasite load 3) is in “good health” (not carrying a disease or illness).

There’s nutritional info on feed molasses in most “feeds” books – from Ensmingers’ Feeds and Nutrition text – it’s about 60% carbs (sugars), 7-8% protein as fed. Primarily used as an energy feed. I think molasses not only keeps down the dust but does help w/ palatability.

Sunflower seeds (and other oilseeds) are also a good E source just have to watch the amount(S) or else it can reduce intake. Can also try adding corn oil to grain ration.

I agree that molasses is not the likely culprit in tooth decay in horses. In fact, there are often more issues with bits of plant fiber getting jammed btwn the tooth and gum and giving abcesses.

[near horse]

Somewhere else on DAP I recall a harness shop being mentioned that will make up some D-ring harness on request – I saved the info:

Beachy’s Harness Shop (Mose)
2815 Township Rd 182
Baltic, OH 43804

If they’re still in business, we should add them to the list.

[near horse]

More likely the eagle was looking for afterbirth or a dead calf. Something he wouldn’t need to carry off. We often see them fly up off of gut piles left by hunters. Not likely they would or could take a live calf.

[near horse]

Three inches of wet snow here in ID too. Nothing to write home about – normal spring snow to not let you out of winter too easily. Moisture is much appreciated after this winter. Also, just started to see any fly action at all and certainly not those annoying black flies.

[near horse]

http://www.cadplans.com/diggers.htm

Here’s a website w/ plans (for a fee) to build your own backhoe/digger – for those w/ the welding bug out there.

[near horse]

There is a possibility that in some hands a buffer could be another excuse for poor management or a lack of skill.

This is a very good point Tim.

Overall, I believe we need to mindful of the abuse of this (or any) “technology”. That said, the long history of development of various implements, uses and methods of work employed by those using draft animals has (and does) certainly require adaptation on the part of our animals. Their ability and willingness to adapt to the challenges we place on them is one reason I enjoy working with them.

[near horse]

Out here in N. Idaho, commercial logging is going great guns primarily due to 1) an incredibly mild dry winter and 2) Canadian lumber going overseas and thus reducing pressure on the US market (that’s from my logger neighbor).

Treated 5″ dia. fence post 8ft long = $11 ea picked up at the treatment plant.

[near horse]

I agree Tim and that was sort of my point – at first it is impressive that TB’s can attain relative peak force-speeds as the drafts (relative to body size) but they are achieved at rates of travel unfit for farming. In this study they couldn’t run their treadmill slower than 2m/s – the slower speed data points that Andy mentioned came from a 1934 study
Procter, R. C., S. Brody, M. M. Jones, and D.W. Chittenden. Efficiency of work horses of different ages and body weights.
Univ. Mo. Agr. Exp. Sta. Res. Bull. 209: 1934

[near horse]

Sorry if it’s too far away – Let me know and I can go out and shoot a closeup for a better view. Your pictures do look like a JD footlift sulky plow – that could even be an Oliver Raydex bottom with replaceable share. I’m not sure what to make of the hitch point on your plow (your first picture). Mine has a series of both horizontal and vertical holes for adjusting the line of draft – maybe you can just add those on without much trouble – they are invaluable.

Looks like a good plow that shouldn’t need much work – wire wheel that mouldboard before you get to turning any soil – it won’t scour perfectly but will do much better.

Let me know if I can be of any help.

[near horse]

Hey John,

Here’s a picture of my JD foot-lift plow – hopefully you can see the tongue attachment and the hitch attachment (vertical and horizontal).

[near horse]

I mentioned the spring tooth being drug almost under the soil surface at the plowing event I went to this last weekend (in another thread). 4 abreast pulling the forecart w/ ~8 ft of springtooth overflowing w/ topsoil – tines weren’t down much at all – the frame of the springtooth was doing the “work”. This ground was freshly plowed and pretty loose but I think some of the troubles had to do with how the springtooth was hitched.

Some of this spring stuff is pretty interesting – keep up the good work. I might need to try setting up something myself.

[near horse]

Joel, what crawled up your a–?

I suspect he has a good reason.
That reason may be that is how dad did it.

People do things for plenty of reasons – some good and some not so good or certainly unfounded. TRADITION – just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it’s still not stupid.

Here’s the thing…he is doing it – you are not

Not for long if he continues to make decisions like that and also, please don’t assume that you know anything about what I do for a living and what I do or don’t know about raising cattle.

why don’t you ask the rancher why it’s done that way?

I did meet him and he said it was totally a marketing decision based on information he got from the beef commission. Fall calving – get on the band wagon.

[near horse]

Here’s a little sidelight about the unforseen perils of fall calving. A producer in our region was switching over to a fall calving regime and had a good portion of his herd bred according to that schedule which put them midway through the first trimester of pregnancy in the early spring when they were out grazing away on their range ground and lo and behold – they found a whole lot of lupins (the flower). Come calving time in the fall he had huge numbers of malformed calves and still births – if I recall it was up around 50% or so. Lupin is capable of causing defects in a developing fetus if both the lupin and the fetus are at the right stage of growth. Point is – couldn’t have happened with spring calving.

[Author]

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