Posted on 05/15/2011 7:01:59 AM PDT by bkopto
When farmers Danielle and Matt Boerson realised they could no longer afford to run their tractors, they took the bull by the horns - and ditched them for oxen.
Soaring petrol prices had become so high that the couple, who run an 80-acre farm near Madison, Wisconsin, were forced to get rid of their two tractors, hay baler, plough and rotavator.
So they took a course at the agricultural institute in traditional farming techniques.
'It gave me the confidence that, yes, I could do this', Danielle told the Times. 'It just required a lot of concentration and a firm voice.' Their instructor was former peace core volunteer Dick Roosenberg, 64, who learned the trade while working for the UN in West Africa. He took the skills he had honed back to Michigan and set up Tillers International.
At first the company was aimed at helping Third World farmers harvest in the cheapest way possible.
On the side, he also helped historically-themed villages. But his specialist knowledge is now enjoying a new wave of interest with farmers from Wisconsin to Alaska now joining his courses.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Hmmm, interesting.
Any ideas where to mount the gps guidance, planter and sprayer monitors? What about auto steer?(as in turning, not castration) :)
True but, they also have lots of kids to help out. How many people now days have more than 2 or 3 kids?
Burlaper, may own word for them.
Iraq grow more modern while the US recedes to the old ways.
We've got to get that communist out of the White House and his fellow communists out of Congress.
I read the Mail Online, pretty much daily. Good coverage of things American.
You are correct, even the Amish seem to stop at 3 or 4; but then I read they only have sex to have children, do not think I believe that one.????
Huh???? I said most people don’t have more than 2 or 3 kids. The Amish usually have large families. So not sure what point your trying to make.
Thank you.
These aren’t people who farm to live. This guy sounds like he farms to be close to mother earth.
I find that hard to believe. A team of ox simply can’t do the same amount of work per time unit, that a tractor can. Plus, oxen down time (sleep, eat, rest, sick) is, of necessity, considerably longer than a tractor downtime (refuel).
Oxen-farming, while nostalgically attractive, will raise costs and create shortages.
And Malthus.
Finally his predictions will come true.
Not the Amish families I have seen around Ohio and Pennsylvania, my statement was they have cut back on family size like the rest of the world.
“Subsistance Farming” — or something very close to it. Surpluses will be modest, so the farm income will be equally modest.
i’m from the city, but i see clearly from your comments, (and mylife and Venturer), that this is BS.
...feeding an oxen corn for a year, must cost more, than diesel gas at planting and harvesting times.
(not even considering the amount of time, vet care, etc.)
i don’t doubt some do it for other reasons, but not financial. ...the idea that large numbers of commercial farmers are trading tractors for oxen, is clearly more fantasy from liberal global warming types.
Depends on your definition of profitable. Several points - the Amish live a 17th century lifestyle, BUT with some 21st century benefits, like modern medicine, good roads, etc. Not saying that’s a bad thing; just pointing out that they are willing to live what for many if not most of us would be an unforgivingly hard lifestyle, and they do have modernity to fall back on if there are problems.
Damn! We depended on the Brits once again to do the actual reporting!
I think I will start the plans for a buggy whip manufacturing site soon.
Due to the price of fuel, I’ve been reduced to eating soup with a dull spounge!
The Environmentalist strategy is working.
The goal: Reduce the power and influence of the United States of America to make way for a World Socialist Government.
The Energy Tactic: Use political means to increase the cost of energy to the United States which will directly, proportionately and continually reduce the standard of living of all Americans.
It’s hard to argue that this has not been a very, very successful plan. You have virtually the entire Democrat party supporting it and incredibly weak GOP opposition.
The cost per acre is less, no fuel or chemicals. The down side is animal care and time.
The only reason some of these family farms are incorporated is to keep the government from siezing a huge chunk of the farm for death taxes.
The equipment required to farm wheat on this scale costs over a million dollars by itself. Profit margins per acre are small so it takes a lot of acres.
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