• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Feeding hay with horses on the Y6, 1-22-11, Part Two

Help Support Ranchers.net:

S

Soapweed

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
16,264
Reaction score
61
Location
northern Nebraska Sandhills
Musclepower.jpg

Muscle power
Dogshowingtheway.jpg

Not sure if the dog is showing the way, staying out of the way, or in the way :wink:
Outthegatetoeagerlyawaitingcattle.jpg

Out the gate to eagerly awaiting cattle
Otherinterestedspectators.jpg

Other interested spectators
Cattlebeingfedwithahydra-fork.jpg

Cattle being fed with a mechanical hydra-fork
Wheelsinmotion.jpg

Wheels in motion
Everythingworkinggreat.jpg

Everything working great
Thecattleonfeedreport.jpg

The cattle on feed report
Emptyoutfitintravelingposition.jpg

Empty outfit in traveling position
Beaverslidestackerthatputsupthehaystacks.jpg

Beaver slide stacker that puts up the hay stacks in the summertime
 
When I was little Mom and dad take the team down the field in front of a bob sled with a big rack on it. There was a tripod of poles next to the loose hay stack. They pull the sleigh under the tripod, unhook the double tree and hook it and the team to a cable that ran down one pole that was 90 degrees to the stack. Dad would get on the stack and tromp in 4 to 6 hooks depending on the grapple and then mom would drive the team forward dad would pull a rope that release the hay onto the hay rack on the sleigh. Usually it only took 2 -3 times to get a load of hay. Then Mom would drive and would pitch.
 
Is there any reason why they'd hook them up six abreast like that. Up here as far as I know they only hooked two or four in line. Not alot of capital tied up in that deal compared to a FWA tractor and a bale processor.
 
Those horses keep going as he's running the hydra fork. Saves on having another man on the job too. As far as harnessing, I can generally get my team harnessed in about 15 minutes. This guy probably does it more often than I do so he can get 6 up and ready in about half hour. They don't have to be plugged in either.
 
Northern Rancher said:
Is there any reason why they'd hook them up six abreast like that. Up here as far as I know they only hooked two or four in line. Not alot of capital tied up in that deal compared to a FWA tractor and a bale processor.
Click to expand...

Six head hooked abreast are more maneuverable in the stackyards. Another big advantage is there are only two lines, those controlling the tongue team. The outside horses are controlled by jockey sticks from the hames of the inside horse to the inside bit of the outside horse, and a line running from the britching of the inside horse to the bit of the outside horse. This process is repeated from horse 2 to 1, and from horse 5 to 6.
 
I've only driven a pair so don't know that much. I wonder if anybody has ever done a cost/benefit analysis of using horses versus modern equipment. There are outfits up here have FWA tractors for haying but park them and feed with horses during winter. You'd almost think fuel , repairs and depreciation would cover the oats and wages for the skinner. I'm still team shoppping-I found a nice team of Belgian mares but they were a bit bigger than I like to harness-30 inch collars.
 
I sure enjoyed these pictures...It is great to still see a part of history still alive..Stacking is almost a lost art, let alone feeding hay by a team. We were the last ranch to give up stacking and go to baleing..and though we didn't use horses, hubby still misses the process of putting up hay with the old slide stacker...Thanks for posting these!
 
Northern Rancher said:
I've only driven a pair so don't know that much. I wonder if anybody has ever done a cost/benefit analysis of using horses versus modern equipment. There are outfits up here have FWA tractors for haying but park them and feed with horses during winter. You'd almost think fuel , repairs and depreciation would cover the oats and wages for the skinner. I'm still team shoppping-I found a nice team of Belgian mares but they were a bit bigger than I like to harness-30 inch collars.
Click to expand...
1 year I did some figuring , save about 180 hrs in a winter on a tractor and about 1/2 to 3/4 hrs of work a day , but some people don't mind choring all day .
 
Thanks for the pictures Soap. To me the bigger deal is that there isn't much on that rig that couldn't be fixed or replaced in the average ranch shop PDQ. Keep a spare hydraulic pump and some hoses around and the down time would likely be minimal.
 
The last year I used a team lots my neighbor next to me and I were getting 700 head fed in two hours with two teams. I used less than a tank of fuel in my 4020 that winter. We started a few chuckwagon horses that winter too-we'd hook one a day with a chore horse and drive them back and forth. The nicest thing about a team is they always start-nothing worse than a froze up tractor in -40 and hungry cows-it's not that cold driving them either no worse than sitting in an unheated tractor. If I can drive horses anybody can cause I'm not especially handy-a buddy came helped me the first few hooks then I kind of learned on my own.
 
More years ago than I like to remember, my Dad, brother and I ran a 1700 acres ranch in Colorado with nothing more than three horses - two draft horses and one saddle horse.

We cut hay with a horse-drawn mower, raked with a dump rake and stacked with a hayrack and a couple of pitchforks. In the winter, we used the same hayrack and pitchforks to feed. It didn't take long to feed, but getting the horses in (they stayed inside during fierce weather), harnessed and hitched up took some time - which we had a lot of.

The hayrack had steel wheels and they would ice up and ride rougher than hell untill we beat the ice off witha hammer, being careful not to strike the steel and cause it to break due to cold weather.

We had to cross a wide, shallow creek to feed so the young folks had to take a tamping bar and shovel to cut a hole through the ice and throw sand on the ice so the horses could cross it safely pulling the hayrack.

Then we had to chop another hole for the cattle to drink from.

Putting up hay in the summer when the hay was dry and there was a little wind to blow the chaff down ones neck was enough to chase this guy off the ranch for 25 years.

Going into the army was quite a break from pitching hay.

It wasn't until 1957 when we had to give up on horses because they were no longer easy to come by. I left the ranch and my brother bought an old JD A (1936) and the horse era was over. It cost $350.
 
Northern Rancher said:
I've only driven a pair so don't know that much. I wonder if anybody has ever done a cost/benefit analysis of using horses versus modern equipment. There are outfits up here have FWA tractors for haying but park them and feed with horses during winter. You'd almost think fuel , repairs and depreciation would cover the oats and wages for the skinner. I'm still team shoppping-I found a nice team of Belgian mares but they were a bit bigger than I like to harness-30 inch collars.
Click to expand...
We've talked about going back to horses here in the winter. If we do, I will have to get it done before my Dad decides ranching isn't fun, so I can learn the right way. There are still BIG differences in cost between using different types/values of equipment to do the same job. There is a big difference in cost between shiny and not so shiny paint. :D
 
Cowpuncher, that is a fascinating story. I can't get enough of hearing how things were done in the past. That was a lot of hard, physical labor. Do you have any idea how many tons you would typically put up?

It would be a great service to future generations if stories like that would be written down and so preserved.
 
Cowpuncher, that is a fascinating story. I can't get enough of hearing how things were done in the past. That was a lot of hard, physical labor. Do you have any idea how many tons you would typically put up?
Click to expand...

We only kept about 85 or 90 cows.

Burnt, I guess we put up about 100-150 tons of hay each year. We could mow about 8-10 acres per day. Rake about twice as much. Stacking was slow since we had cows to milk in the morning and evening. We hauled about a ton of hay in a load and got about 11 or 12 loads per day. One year when we had a lot of moisture, it took us two weeks to get an 18 acre field in stacks.

Starting out in the spring was slow since we had to get the horses hardened up a bit. It was a bit hard on them mowing when we went from a 5 foot mower to a 6 footer.

On the other hand, our only cash expenses were for a new sickle or two and some guards and ledger plates. As I recall, one spring parts run cost us some $23.00.

Toughest part was watching the neighbor do about the same amount of hay in three or four days suing his Farmall Super C and Model M.

I sure was one strong 17 year old when I went into the Army!!
 
Some outfits up here went right from loose hay to round bales they skipped the whole idiot cube deal.

http://www.farmingwithhorses.com/horse-drawn-haying-equipment

Some nice stuff on this site.
 
Northern Rancher said:
The last year I used a team lots my neighbor next to me and I were getting 700 head fed in two hours with two teams. I used less than a tank of fuel in my 4020 that winter. We started a few chuckwagon horses that winter too-we'd hook one a day with a chore horse and drive them back and forth. The nicest thing about a team is they always start-nothing worse than a froze up tractor in -40 and hungry cows-it's not that cold driving them either no worse than sitting in an unheated tractor. If I can drive horses anybody can cause I'm not especially handy-a buddy came helped me the first few hooks then I kind of learned on my own.
Click to expand...
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: well then we should get together and compare note's on driving , cause I've been doing one heck of a job winging it to .
 
What a nice set up. You harrow with them in the spring?. I really like the forecart. Good you have lots of room cause backing up would be tough.

I ran 4 abreast alot. Sometimes it's handier then doing a 4-up.

Nice they go while you run the fork.
 

Latest posts

Top