Hoof power ? ? ?

[DIM TIM]

Anyone out here doing any part of their farming and homesteading work with draft animals ? I have often thought that a pair of oxen or a couple of mules would be a great asset to have around the farm or homestead when we eventually can't use a tractor for whatever reason.

And the nice thing about using oxen that I have seen besides the fact that they can do an amazing amount of work, is the fact that when they are past their prime...they can still be butchered for the home larder.

[springvalley]

I have used draft horses alot in my younger years and a little now, I have never used oxen, but have always wanted to. It will be alot easier to get a couple calves to train for use of oxen, and less expensive. Oxen are a lot slower than horses or mules, but also eat alot less valueable feed stuffs, that is why most horses were traded for oxen when heading west, because there was alot less feed past the mississippi river back then. Mules takes a differant type of person to train and work them, mules will not over eat, over drink, or over work. And you never abuse a mule, as they will wait their lifetime to get even with you. A horse can be worked to death, over eat and drink if givin the chance, and on the most part are easily trained. And I for one could never eat a work animal that has given his whole life to me and worked faithfully, and then be eaten in the end. Granted it will be better than someone else doing the deed, but they can be work to a ripe old age, then put out to pasture for their last few years. Now granted if I was in need of food for my family, it would be a no brainer, they would be on the butchers rail for eating in no time. More later, > Marc

[bantams]

Great article in the NYT yesterday: On Small Farms, Hoof Power Returns.

[springvalley]

wonderful article bantams. > Marc

[haypoint]

Horses= slow, oxen=very slow.
I've farmed with Percheron horses off and on for 30 years. Very difficult to raise and harvest grain and hay totally with livestock. Fuel would have to get very costly to surpass the effort in providing a years worth of feed for a team. I do it because I like it.

Meat from a worn out draft animal wouldn't be much of a plus to me. Easier to just soak some tree bark in beef bulion.

[Otter]

On a small scale, I've got a goat wether I'm training to pull. He's only 11 months old, so hasn't done much actual work yet, but isn't at all bothered by pulling dried shrubs around, has never freaked over having ropes all over him and is learning to throw his weight forward and pull if there's a treat around.

Full grown (another 18 months off) he should weigh 200 lbs and should easily pull twice that in a well-balanced load on good ground. He should be awfully useful around here. Lehman's even sells a garden-sized goat plow and cultivator.

Goat wethers are cheap, don't eat much or take up much space and are as edible as oxen, maybe more so - they butcher out like a deer.
Like Springvalley, I don't think I could eat my Erik unless I was starving, but if you had a wether that was obnoxious ...

[francismilker]

I'm all for nostalgia and saving money anyway I can. However, unless it was for sentimental reasons I'd have a hard time investing feed and time into what I could do with a tractor.