Economics of Draft Animal Power 

Does this bring anyone else to tears? There is something so RIGHT about this.

My deepest appreciation to you , sir, for sharing your views and experiences with us. It does seem to be a wonderful existence for all involved!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

What a great documentary, I have a great love for horses and the Farmers that use them, this is what our country was built on, whenever I am out and about and see a farmer utilizing horses I just have to stop and watch as I get so mesmerised by just sitting and watching.

Love this video! Perfect example of an old school practice that can be much more rewarding than the modern equivalent

I just drove thru OKlahoma wheatlands, miles of wheat in every direction...they used to have 40 horse hitches to harvest fields like that, I can't imagine the logistics of even getting all those horses hitched, much less driving them , it boggles the mind. But those huge tractors they use on miles of wheat, that must compact the soil...this video is lovely and I wish them all success.

Great videos. I would love to see more like these.

We don’t know how fragile this modernity thing is. Our preindustrial skills must be preserved.

You r making a great input in changing the world for the better. Thank you

Wonderful information. This is going to be the thing of the future.

I do enjoy watching your posts, I just wish they were 10 min or longer. Thanks for sharing and have a nice safe day!!

Enjoyed your video. Nice to see you working with horses.

My farm is quite small I’ve been training goats to do my work don’t laugh they can do tons of work.

Excellent , Many Thanks.

Really interesting and we'll done. Love those big horses!

I love draft horses. They are the biggest and sweetest doll babies. What you see is what you get with them. They are honest to a fault. They have beautiful eyes and you can see much within those eyes. They are wonderful animals. Beautiful animals. Thank you God for creating such beautiful creatures.

Fabulous videos! Go Washington State! My home!!!

6:08 AAHHHH!!!! Do not run a drill press holding the piece! Get a vice and use it. The fingers you save will be your own.

Love it. I miss my Clyde.

He hit it all right on the head at the very beginning. It's simply a matter of scale. There is a finite amount of land you can till in a day/week/planting season.

scarce commodity fuel. will not happen in 100yrs. working with horses every day is a dream come true. wish i was born 120yrs ago. thanks for sharing

BEAUTYFUL...AWESOME

where do you get or how do you make the strings on the horses sides that appear to be for fly/bug protection? That looks like a very good concept. Thank you in advance.

You don’t have to have a special draft breed to do some jobs I had a young thorobred that was too slow to race so I broke him to harnes and using a secondhand set of harness that I repaired and reconditioned the leather of then I used to pull a old gate around his own paddock to break up and spread the manure so the paddock was more evenly fertilised

A tractor can never be your freind.

There will be a major shortage of diesel this year, so thank you so much!

Молодцы какие! Я думала, что за границей фермеры используют только технику... У них же такие машины! Такой прогресс! А тут-лошади, как в средние века.

I notice that you have several different breeds of animals. What breed are they? I see what might be a Suffolk Punch horse and Percheron. Do you prefer one breed over another? If so, why? I know that might be a hard question to answer because they are all superb workers. Do you have a stallion in your herd? I follow one channel that has a young Suffolk stud who is learning to do the job just like all the others. He is such a fine example of how versatile draft horses are.

Vet bills are usually no more than a mechanics cost to do the repairs on a tractor that you can’t do if kept well there will be less vet need

If you did rotational grazing, managed grazing, could you get by with less pasture?

Very nice, thank-you. Two points: have you compared use of oxen and horses? Secondly, I hope that true co-operators in north America start, or revert to, the hyphenated forms, 'co-operative', 'co-operation', etc. While abbreviation co-op is clearly used (since the unhyphenated form, 'coop', has a clearly different meaning the unhyphenated form 'cooperate' is often used in an implied power level of coercion. In the ICA Statement (see www.ica.coop - yes we were not successful in the nineties in having the hyphen included in the top-level domain name, hence dot-coop) the present form strongly emphasises the voluntary nature of true co-operation.

Do your horses get hard feed? they lookvery healthy but I was wondering

You don't have to wait on a service call from John Deere dealer because your tractor won't start because it's computer related and you the owner of the tractor can't fix it yourself.🤔👍

praying more people use horses . They need us

Horses also don’t compact the soil as much as a tractor may do

I love them I Would really like a beautiful blue Belgium .Can anyone tall me how I could join a heavy horse Club

really cool video. Which group did you get involved with in Washington state?

I've seen some lovely well trained draft horses go through kill pens.

I would say most horses and mules are big and strong enough to carry and pull heavy loads. But there are certain horses and mules that can pull or carry certain weights.

You also have all the maintenance on tractors though. So maybe worth the extra time in the field.

Yes korrekt! Hi from Germany

Can you make a living with a “horse size “ farm? Also hi from Olympia, yes it’s still crazy land here

This is great if it is more economical. Besides, you really can't pet a tractor.

I've found the harness to run to one thousand per.

where do you buy draft horses in america?

I'm an Economist and although I'd love for you to be right, you are not. There is oil for 50 more years and then alternative sources will take over. It's like saying that swimming to Europe will become more economical than flying there. I admire your passion and your love of animals.

Beats the monotonous noise of tractors!!

Quiero una maquina como la de corpir

How do u make money of it ?

I'll take a Span of Mules I've. Worked with horses and mules Mules

Some 19th century sources say that a mule costs 50% less to feed than a horse and the mule has 10 more active working years. Large donkeys are cheap to feed. A jack could be used to make mules and make money from stud service.

has a tractor ever protected you from a man trying to kill you? no. but my stallion did! Guy came in my horse pen yelling at me and chasing me and my stallion went right after him and pinned him in the corner snapping his mouth at him. One mouthful of his face would have killed him. Lenny had the guy begging for me to call him off...... Finally I calmly said "It's ok Lenny...." and the horse began to ease up....and the man ran out screaming like a little kid!

Do you eat horse meat where you live?

Horses cost more than mules, and a good trained mule can cost anywhere between $5000 and $10,000, and horses are upwards of that. The speaker must have been out of touch with prices for decades, because it would be challenging to find a horse for $2000 or less, unless it is adopted.

I think a lot of his costs are on the low side. A 'few hundred dollars' for a new workhorse harness? Try 2 thousand or more.

Everyone I know who spent a lot of time with horses was seriously injured by a horse with many other near injuries.

Update from someone farming and logging with horses: since this was published, the prices he quotes are no longer realistic. Not at all accurate. Everything else is bang on, just not dollar values for infrastructure items, costs have gone up a lot in 10 years or more.

These overworked, broken down drafts are landing at auctions by the dozens and selling for meat. Is this the end game for your economics? What do you do for your aged horses when they can no longer plow your fields and break their backs for you? Do you have a nice retirement pasture for them or is this not economical? Note my profile photo-she was a lucky one. Many get to go on a nice, long hot trip to Mexico.

Horses are a tangible asset. Tractor can't breed another tractor to have offspring for income.👍🤔

Green horses and green handlers are never a good mix

Horses live up to 40 years old . please discuss the ethicacy of retiring a horse and the moral obligation of really retiring a horse in contrast to sending a horse to slaughter to be stabbed on the neck until they collapse then chains wrapped around thier hind legs lifting thier bodies off the ground and then thier throats cut while hanging upside down. That is the fate of retired work horses

Xxd

Jesus saves

Z

destroy all tractors

So it is kind of like slavery...maybe you mentioned feed before..

HORSES AREN'T MEANT TO PULL STUFF PEOPLE THINK IT'S OK BUT IT'S NOT HE IS TRYING TO MAKE THIS DISGUSTING BUSINESS SOUND OK IT'S DISGUSTING