I admire you and your traditional methods for plowing and planting. I also have a new appreciation of how things were done before tractors replaced horses or other animals. Thanks for sharing your experiences with the rest of us.
Amazing video with excellent commentary ,which really explained what ploughing with horses is like, 4 horses and 2 donkeys quite a lot to look after tks
That looks like incredibly hard work. My grandfather was a farmer in Tennessee (USA) during the depression, and I remember him plowing with a big white draft horse. I never realized how back-breakingly hard it was! (Beth)
I love the way you always have a smile on your face, even when struggling with a wayward mare! Great job on the ploughing, that looked really tough going. And I like your pragmatic approach... we don't have a harrow, so let's just improvise and see what happens. Now we need to see if this approach really does work!
I have a disc harrow!! And a potato moulder! Wanna come by & pick them up? I used to have 3 big draught horses, far too many years ago. I used these discs when growing 10 acres of oats one year. Your lovely videos bring back many nostalgic memories of better times for me.
Ruby Gray Grand job, Ruby, we'll be around later on to check it out! Seriously, how wonderful to have those experiences and memories in your back-pocket. I'm sure you could teach us so much. Shame you don't live a bit nearer : - )
The pioneer farmers in the midwest, learned to plow 2 or 3 furrows, then have someone with a bucket of potatoes throw them down in front of the plow, and the plow would tutn them underneith. WHOLE lot easier. They did that with corn too
Great stuff, watching this put a smile on my face as usual. You are one of the few channels that really manage to evoke feeling with every video, and I really appreciate you making these videos for us. Ploughing with horses looks awesome, and it's important that the tecniques are preserved! You looked pretty competent at it too, well done! But I have a question. Why don't you plough in the fall, or just after you've finished harvesting your potatoes? The ground won't be so wet then, the grass will have longer to decompose, and precipitation and the ground freezing will break up the sod so you won't need a disc harrow! Maybe the climate just isn't suitable where you live?
TheodorEriksson Thanks Theodor! That's an excellent question (go to the top of the class) - ploughing in the fall does mean the grass rots over winter, but it also leaves the soil exposed to the wet for much longer. And that leads to serious leaching of the nutrients and deterioration of the structure. No one these days would leave soil like that, now that we know what happens. The plan would be to plough and plant immediately (- so winter-wheat in the fall, for instance) so the new plants help hold the soil together. Of course many would say we shouldn't plough at all - it's too damaging to the soil - but we haven't found a no-dig system that works for us. Yet.
Impressive all in all. Remembering back some years ago, about 50 of them, to working with horses in fields, I have 2 questions,,, neither is criticism, just honest questions. 1. Why not plough under in the autumn, cover the ground with manure and let it set over winter with a small grain crop or clover to hold the soil? Then just a perpendicular harrowing in the spring is required. 2. Why plant a whole potato as seed when a half with two good eyes will suffice ? Cheers, Charlie
bluemtnsman Good questions, Charlie - thank you. We have found that planting a grain crop here in the autumn either results in nothing (because we're the only ones doing it for mile around, the rooks and pigeons would find every last one) - or too much and we'd have to plough again in the spring. It's very mild usually so growth sometimes doesn't stop at all overwinter. We cut up the big ones, leave the small ones - but in between there's a grey area! In fact we didn't plough enough so we had plenty of seed - and we squeezed a row of artichokes in as well..
WayOutWest Blowinblog The ole-timers round here plough their spuds in. Someone walks behind the ploughman, dropping a potato in the furrow every 14" or thereabouts, kicking it over to the right hand side. The next furrow ploughed covers the row of potatoes. They are planted like this every second furrow. Then the discs come in handy. They are driven along the furrows and break it up nicely. In fact it is good to use them before ploughing too, to slice the turf. Then it is so much easier to mould the rows later.
Ruby Gray You see - you teach us so much : - ) I can imagine a few get squashed by hooves? Or are the potatoes dropped in between the hooves and the plough? Good timing needed?
WayOutWest Blowinblog Where did that reply go? I'm sure I posted it. They seem to have a really low squish rate! I think once the furrow horse really knows his job, he stays well over to the left side, and the spuds are way to the right. I really must learn how to edit & post videos (tutorial needed please!) and make sure I am at their next ploughing field day. There are very few of the born-&-bred horsemen still about now, though there are quite a few who have skipped a generation or two and reviving the skills.
Just a hint, to stop them from eating when they should be working, I suggest for you to try an over-check line back to the back-band. Then they can't put their heads down to eat.
Amy Christensen Thanks Amy - yes, we worked that out ourselves eventually. It helps that they are out grazing for a couple of hours a day now, so they aren't as desperate for grass as they were last week.
watching this makes me miss grandad even more. we grew tobacco with horses in virginia. i hated that work worse than anything. it was either grow tobacco or go into that coal mine staring at me. i went into USAF and guess what. i was launch control at a ICBM missle complex yep underground. i have been desiring to own a farm since i left. how dumb.
We have nasty cliche (clay) hardpan soil here in Arizona. I'm given to understand that adding gypsum to the soil will help loosen it a bit and help improve drainage. It doesn't rain much in Arizona, but when it does it doesn't kid around. Because of the cliche you get little drainage and you end up with a good six inches of mud that you have to try to walk through, most of it ankle deep and sticking to your shoes and refuses to come off until it drys and you can knock it off. I had my shoe sucked off my foot one day... oh _gross_ . And normally you end up sliding on it and falling on your can. And there is a salt mine not far from me and it worsens the soil issues very near it. It even makes the water brackish and undrinkable in the private wells there, and water has to be hauled in for people and livestock to drink. Ours is fine, but then the town's wells aren't near there. The farmers here have to add amendments to the soil just make it workable. Sometimes topsoil has to be brought in, that's how bad the soil is. But once they do, the soil works up well and the crops do quite nicely. We also have several farms that have produce stands every year. And we have beekeepers, people that keep chickens, sheep, goats, horses, and cattle ranchers as well. I have to say the soil is _far_ different than the rich black loam of Wisconsin where I grew up. And I miss the lush green fields, trees and milk cows everywhere.
PhantomQueenOne Thank you - that's interesting. We always assume everyone else has better soil than we have (and the grass is always greener!) - but I don't think we'd like what you describe at all. Often we have too much rain - but that's much better than too little.
WayOutWest Blowinblog The ground is wet? Well, it is Ireland after all :) As one of the Irish ex-pate here that owns a pub in Phoenix says to illustrate the truth of what he is saying "Does it rain in Ireland?" XD Strangely there are a lot of people from Ireland and the UK here, maybe because it's so dry. Arizona is like California we are having drought. And if we get rain it's too hard to really do much but run off at the time. But heavy clay soil is that all over the world. We would even get hardpan in Wisconsin, just not from the get go, only after years of farming. And often the ground was too soaked in the spring to plant when the farmers wanted to and they had to impatiently wait as the narrow window of time for planting started to close. Anything you can do to lighten sodden soil and improve drainage might be a benefit. I don't know if you have a version of a cooperative county extension, but they are a great resource, the farmers here swear by them nifa.usda.gov/extension. I wonder if another UA-camr that lives in Northern Ireland could give you any pointers on what to do, he's a cattle farmer. He might know what resources are out there. I haven't seen him are around lately, but it's a busy time of year for farming calving and such... or he got in trouble _again_. He tells people that drinks too much and gets in fights, and that he may not start a fight, but he does _finish_ them. He's brainy bruser type up would want on your side during a brawl. He talks about cattle in a way that implies much education on the topic, and has a temper... just ask anyone that has anyone that has verbally had a stripe taken out of them in a Google hangout. He has a tongue like a razor, and the quick wits to back it up. I haven't had the erm... pleasure (?) of having it aimed at me, but he knows I'm fond of him and I try not to say anything as blatantly stupid in his presence as do his chosen targets. And he is is hysterically funny while doing it to boot. Oh, here's the place in Ireland that could give you tips, I thought there was one. www.teagasc.ie/
mitchil Geary Thanks Mitchil. We're on the same side as Leitrim, but it's near the top and we're at the bottom so we couldn't get much farther away. But, as you know, it's only a little country so we're all neighbours really.
Henry Mulligan Only blight, Henry. Potatoes like damp conditions, but so do blight moulds. But we mostly grow more resistant varieties and we always get a good crop.
SELF-RELIANCE STRONG COMMUNITY We often look into it but even in a small scale we find all sorts of problems with it. We like the theory, but in practice we're still struggling with it. For instance, mulch = slugs. How about you guys?
WayOutWest Blowinblog I'm just getting started with mulch gardening and I have not had any slug problems, so I don't know how to deal with such a problem. Last year I planted some things and some did well and others didn't. Year after year I do expect it to only get better. So far what I am using now is mulched trees .
WayOutWest Blowinblog I've never grown potatoes at anything other than home garden scale, but in permaculture terms you never have a problem with too many slugs (or snails) you just don't have enough ducks ... ;)
I like your channel but as a guy who grown in a ranch/country I think you need better horses...maybe is just my preference at what I consider a good working horse...just my 2 cents...keep up the good work
I'd be interested to hear more. My first thought is that the heat would only go a few mm down and only kill a few seeds, plus it would involve a lot of walking up and down with a large, heavy, expensive burner thing. But perhaps I'm wrong?
I admire you and your traditional methods for plowing and planting. I also have a new appreciation of how things were done before tractors replaced horses or other animals.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with the rest of us.
always something new to learn. Poor Flora, though, I know that wobbly leg feeling
Amazing video with excellent commentary ,which really explained what ploughing with horses is like, 4 horses and 2 donkeys quite a lot to look after tks
CORRIGEEN71 thanks Corrigeen. No, wait - 3 horses and 2 donkeys these days. And that's plenty : - )
That looks like incredibly hard work. My grandfather was a farmer in Tennessee (USA) during the depression, and I remember him plowing with a big white draft horse. I never realized how back-breakingly hard it was! (Beth)
Ben Matthews It's fun really, Beth, and we stop before we fall over. Usually : - )
Wow! That is impressive. I never realized all the considerations that have to be made for each row ploughed.
Beautiful horses and beautiful land. Hope your potatoes do well.
Larryd1001 Thanks Larry!
Can't wait to see how the potatoes do ! My garden is doing great so far
I love the way you always have a smile on your face, even when struggling with a wayward mare! Great job on the ploughing, that looked really tough going.
And I like your pragmatic approach... we don't have a harrow, so let's just improvise and see what happens. Now we need to see if this approach really does work!
Tony Watson Thanks Tony. We are very fortunate that we wouldn't starve if they don't come up. That helps a lot.
I love these videos! Thank you so much for making them.
Paul Cassid
I have a disc harrow!! And a potato moulder! Wanna come by & pick them up? I used to have 3 big draught horses, far too many years ago. I used these discs when growing 10 acres of oats one year. Your lovely videos bring back many nostalgic memories of better times for me.
Ruby Gray Grand job, Ruby, we'll be around later on to check it out!
Seriously, how wonderful to have those experiences and memories in your back-pocket. I'm sure you could teach us so much. Shame you don't live a bit nearer : - )
WayOutWest Blowinblog
You keep making that icecream, I'm moving to Cork!!
I forgot I had already subscribed to you. I got excited because of the Horses and potatoes lol. Cannot wait for your next video :-)
Jim Weaver Cheers, Jim!
Hi I have a small organic farm and would love to use horses to plough, great video.
like I have said before, A tractor can never be your friend
I don't know, I had to laugh at 5:38 ... was thinking at first "oh no the poor horse what are you doing??" :)
The pioneer farmers in the midwest, learned to plow 2 or 3 furrows, then have someone with a bucket of potatoes throw them down in front of the plow, and the plow would tutn them underneith. WHOLE lot easier. They did that with corn too
Even with my 35 hp tractor, it is difficult for me to turn over heavy soil that has not been plowed before and is in sod.
Great stuff, watching this put a smile on my face as usual. You are one of the few channels that really manage to evoke feeling with every video, and I really appreciate you making these videos for us. Ploughing with horses looks awesome, and it's important that the tecniques are preserved! You looked pretty competent at it too, well done!
But I have a question. Why don't you plough in the fall, or just after you've finished harvesting your potatoes? The ground won't be so wet then, the grass will have longer to decompose, and precipitation and the ground freezing will break up the sod so you won't need a disc harrow! Maybe the climate just isn't suitable where you live?
TheodorEriksson Thanks Theodor!
That's an excellent question (go to the top of the class) - ploughing in the fall does mean the grass rots over winter, but it also leaves the soil exposed to the wet for much longer. And that leads to serious leaching of the nutrients and deterioration of the structure. No one these days would leave soil like that, now that we know what happens. The plan would be to plough and plant immediately (- so winter-wheat in the fall, for instance) so the new plants help hold the soil together.
Of course many would say we shouldn't plough at all - it's too damaging to the soil - but we haven't found a no-dig system that works for us. Yet.
Impressive all in all.
Remembering back some years ago, about 50 of them, to working with horses in fields, I have 2 questions,,, neither is criticism, just honest questions.
1. Why not plough under in the autumn, cover the ground with manure and let it set over winter with a small grain crop or clover to hold the soil? Then just a perpendicular harrowing in the spring is required.
2. Why plant a whole potato as seed when a half with two good eyes will suffice ?
Cheers, Charlie
bluemtnsman Good questions, Charlie - thank you.
We have found that planting a grain crop here in the autumn either results in nothing (because we're the only ones doing it for mile around, the rooks and pigeons would find every last one) - or too much and we'd have to plough again in the spring. It's very mild usually so growth sometimes doesn't stop at all overwinter.
We cut up the big ones, leave the small ones - but in between there's a grey area! In fact we didn't plough enough so we had plenty of seed - and we squeezed a row of artichokes in as well..
WayOutWest Blowinblog
The ole-timers round here plough their spuds in. Someone walks behind the ploughman, dropping a potato in the furrow every 14" or thereabouts, kicking it over to the right hand side. The next furrow ploughed covers the row of potatoes. They are planted like this every second furrow. Then the discs come in handy. They are driven along the furrows and break it up nicely. In fact it is good to use them before ploughing too, to slice the turf. Then it is so much easier to mould the rows later.
Ruby Gray You see - you teach us so much : - ) I can imagine a few get squashed by hooves? Or are the potatoes dropped in between the hooves and the plough? Good timing needed?
WayOutWest Blowinblog
Where did that reply go? I'm sure I posted it.
They seem to have a really low squish rate! I think once the furrow horse really knows his job, he stays well over to the left side, and the spuds are way to the right. I really must learn how to edit & post videos (tutorial needed please!) and make sure I am at their next ploughing field day. There are very few of the born-&-bred horsemen still about now, though there are quite a few who have skipped a generation or two and reviving the skills.
Ruby Gray yes please Ruby - a video or two would be very helpful : - )
Just a hint, to stop them from eating when they should be working, I suggest for you to try an over-check line back to the back-band. Then they can't put their heads down to eat.
Amy Christensen Thanks Amy - yes, we worked that out ourselves eventually. It helps that they are out grazing for a couple of hours a day now, so they aren't as desperate for grass as they were last week.
I love you videos
watching this makes me miss grandad even more. we grew tobacco with horses in virginia. i hated that work worse than anything. it was either grow tobacco or go into that coal mine staring at me. i went into USAF and guess what. i was launch control at a ICBM missle complex yep underground. i have been desiring to own a farm since i left. how dumb.
Looking forward to seeing your potatoes.
Patrick Meehan Do you think they have a chance, Patrick?
We have nasty cliche (clay) hardpan soil here in Arizona. I'm given to understand that adding gypsum to the soil will help loosen it a bit and help improve drainage.
It doesn't rain much in Arizona, but when it does it doesn't kid around. Because of the cliche you get little drainage and you end up with a good six inches of mud that you have to try to walk through, most of it ankle deep and sticking to your shoes and refuses to come off until it drys and you can knock it off. I had my shoe sucked off my foot one day... oh _gross_ . And normally you end up sliding on it and falling on your can.
And there is a salt mine not far from me and it worsens the soil issues very near it. It even makes the water brackish and undrinkable in the private wells there, and water has to be hauled in for people and livestock to drink. Ours is fine, but then the town's wells aren't near there.
The farmers here have to add amendments to the soil just make it workable. Sometimes topsoil has to be brought in, that's how bad the soil is. But once they do, the soil works up well and the crops do quite nicely. We also have several farms that have produce stands every year. And we have beekeepers, people that keep chickens, sheep, goats, horses, and cattle ranchers as well.
I have to say the soil is _far_ different than the rich black loam of Wisconsin where I grew up. And I miss the lush green fields, trees and milk cows everywhere.
PhantomQueenOne Thank you - that's interesting. We always assume everyone else has better soil than we have (and the grass is always greener!) - but I don't think we'd like what you describe at all. Often we have too much rain - but that's much better than too little.
WayOutWest Blowinblog The ground is wet? Well, it is Ireland after all :) As one of the Irish ex-pate here that owns a pub in Phoenix says to illustrate the truth of what he is saying "Does it rain in Ireland?" XD Strangely there are a lot of people from Ireland and the UK here, maybe because it's so dry. Arizona is like California we are having drought. And if we get rain it's too hard to really do much but run off at the time. But heavy clay soil is that all over the world. We would even get hardpan in Wisconsin, just not from the get go, only after years of farming. And often the ground was too soaked in the spring to plant when the farmers wanted to and they had to impatiently wait as the narrow window of time for planting started to close. Anything you can do to lighten sodden soil and improve drainage might be a benefit.
I don't know if you have a version of a cooperative county extension, but they are a great resource, the farmers here swear by them nifa.usda.gov/extension.
I wonder if another UA-camr that lives in Northern Ireland could give you any pointers on what to do, he's a cattle farmer. He might know what resources are out there. I haven't seen him are around lately, but it's a busy time of year for farming calving and such... or he got in trouble _again_. He tells people that drinks too much and gets in fights, and that he may not start a fight, but he does _finish_ them. He's brainy bruser type up would want on your side during a brawl. He talks about cattle in a way that implies much education on the topic, and has a temper... just ask anyone that has anyone that has verbally had a stripe taken out of them in a Google hangout. He has a tongue like a razor, and the quick wits to back it up. I haven't had the erm... pleasure (?) of having it aimed at me, but he knows I'm fond of him and I try not to say anything as blatantly stupid in his presence as do his chosen targets. And he is is hysterically funny while doing it to boot.
Oh, here's the place in Ireland that could give you tips, I thought there was one. www.teagasc.ie/
we plant potatoes in a straw mulch, easier to harvest
Beautiful horses . Good luck with the crop. Are you anywhere near Leitrim ? That's where my dad was from.
mitchil Geary Thanks Mitchil. We're on the same side as Leitrim, but it's near the top and we're at the bottom so we couldn't get much farther away. But, as you know, it's only a little country so we're all neighbours really.
2:09 oh poor bob, he doesn't have it easy either...
foobargorch l love you videos
Do you sell your produce? It seems an awful lot just for the 2 of you! Or is it for the animals too? Thank you for the videos, they are great 😊
We eat some and then the animals eat everything else (and then look around for more).
Do you have problems with potato diseases as a result of growing in a wet climate?
Henry Mulligan Only blight, Henry. Potatoes like damp conditions, but so do blight moulds. But we mostly grow more resistant varieties and we always get a good crop.
Have you ever looked into no-till gardening ?
SELF-RELIANCE STRONG COMMUNITY We often look into it but even in a small scale we find all sorts of problems with it. We like the theory, but in practice we're still struggling with it. For instance, mulch = slugs. How about you guys?
WayOutWest Blowinblog I'm just getting started with mulch gardening and I have not had any slug problems, so I don't know how to deal with such a problem. Last year I planted some things and some did well and others didn't. Year after year I do expect it to only get better. So far what I am using now is mulched trees .
SELF-RELIANCE STRONG COMMUNITY We'd need a lot of trees for our potato patch!
SELF-RELIANCE STRONG COMMUNITY If you haven't seen this it's worth a look
vimeo.com/28055108 no-till gardening at its best
WayOutWest Blowinblog I've never grown potatoes at anything other than home garden scale, but in permaculture terms you never have a problem with too many slugs (or snails) you just don't have enough ducks ... ;)
Ay love
tilling the soil makes it weaker.
I like your channel but as a guy who grown in a ranch/country I think you need better horses...maybe is just my preference at what I consider a good working horse...just my 2 cents...keep up the good work
Our horses do a wide range of jobs - working with children is their main one, and I don't think better horses exist for that : - )
Try to copy the Japanese to burn the soil after ploughing . This will burn out weed seeds.
I'd be interested to hear more. My first thought is that the heat would only go a few mm down and only kill a few seeds, plus it would involve a lot of walking up and down with a large, heavy, expensive burner thing. But perhaps I'm wrong?