[Roy]

We also make sorghum but we use our oxen. I have a larger 2 horse mill made around 1900. The pan we cook in is copper and also built around the same time. The few of us who still make syrup use old equipment because nothing new is available.

[Roy]

What type of 2x did you use for the floor? I use 2×6 oak and it holds up well, strong too. The problem I have with plywood or matts is that the urine and manuer can’t drain out and I wind up with a huge mess in the trailer.

[Roy]

I have the same type problem with the sorghum syrup that we produce. Many things effect consistancy such as weather, soil, and the person cooking at the pan. We have tried to get our customers as envolved as possible in the process so that they are better educated about the product. One way to do this is to let them see as much of the process as possible. Even seeing you make a mistake is valuable. That way they know that what you sell is the good stuff, and mistakes are fed to the hogs.

[Roy]

The yoke I use is made of 1″x pine and is very strong.

[Roy]

We also have a small wood shop that a friend operates. He helps at the mill as off bearer, I pay him with lumber, then I receive a percentage of his retail sales. The tops we cut into fire wood and sell in our campground.

[Roy]

I have seen horse collar used on an ox but the result was a sored ox! If you want to work an ox single then I’d use a single yoke with britchen. A steers neck and sholders are just too different from an equine to use the same rig.

[Roy]

You bring up a good point Carl. The forest is much more than the value of standing timber. I think that it is important not to forget about the importance of the entire ecosystem, not just from the view of preservation, but the economic advantage as well. A balanced aproach to forest managment can support selective timber harvesting, wildlife, and recreation without one negetively effecting the other. It all depends on balance. In 1841 my great grandfather x3, homesteaded what would become our familys farm. For the next 60 years the land was exstensivly logged, and farmed. The logging stopped around 1900, the tillable ground continued in crop production or grazing while the land that was too rocky or steep slowly returned to forest. After 100 years we now have a farm that is much more in balance. We selectivly harvest our timber with our oxen and custom saw the logs here on our own mill. By working this way we can also see an economic return from the wildlife and recreational tourism. Our cattle production is much smaller than it once was, but the beef is being marketed direct sale and not going through the sale barn. All of this combined has not only given us a much more diverse, and beautiful farm, but has actually put our farm back into the black without any of us having to work an off farm job. The key has been to not go so far in one direction that you adversly effect the other.

[Roy]

Eric, I took a look at your website and saw that you use an old binder to harvest your wheat. If you use a hay loader behind your wagon, then putting up loose hay will be no more labour intensive than your wheat harvest. One person can drive the team while a second person in the wagon stacks the hay as the loader brings it on board. Of course you still have to mow and rake the hay, but that has to be done whether you bale or put up loose. The advantage of loose hay is that you can put it up with a higher moisture content, and it seems to be more palatable to the stock. The disadvantage is that it is more difficult to handle, and since it is not compressed, you can’t get as much in the barn as you can with bales.

[Author]

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