Horses / Oxen

[Logscaler]

Is anyone here using horses or oxen to gather sap? If so - Are you using buckets and going tree to tree or using tubing. Thanks!

[Dill]

My brother in law used to use his oxen. When he was still in 4-H. My wife's family has a large dairy operation which is basically in suburban Concord. He used to take the team up and down the street collecting out of buckets.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I use horses to do some of my gathering. I now have mostly tubing and use the horses to transfer sap from a large storage tank "over back" to the sugar house. Three or 4 round trips on a good day. I still have about 50 buckets that we gather with the horses but I will admit it is partly for show but hey...anything that sells some extra syrup, right!

[Bucket Head]

I once listened to Steve Childs of Cornell Univ. talk about bucket efficiency. He asked the group which was better, a team of horses or a tractor?

As you can imagine, there were lot's of answer's with much debate backing them all up.

Then Steve said, "I've tried many times, but my tractor never comes to me when I call to it".

I thought that was good.

That got people thinking.

Steve

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Steve is exactly right. With the team, when I stop to open a gate, I get off, open the gate, call the horses, they walk through, I close the gate and get back on the rig. Same while gathering. After the horses learn the routes, they know where to stop. I tie the lines to the front post on the wagon or sled (sled is preferable, it is 6" lower than the wagon, less lifting) and proceed to gather. As I work ahead, I simply talk the team along. There are some rough spots in the road where I always drive to insure (most of the time) that there are no upsets. I hate seeing a tub of sap on its side pouring onto the ground.

[3% Solution]

Thompson's,
My dad would tell about the team he had, very, very smart animals and good friends too.
Do you have any pictures, would love to see some!!!
There are a couple of guys that log with horses around here.
Well you have a great day!!

Dave

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

3%,
Sorry, no pics. One of the things on my to do list, get one of these new fangled cameras and learn to put pictures on the internet. Any suggestions on who could teach an old farmer how to run these computer things:)

[3% Solution]

Thompson's,
Ahhhhh, that old farmer can teach himself some new tricks!!
You can run the machine your on right now, heck you can handle a camera.
All the programs come with them along with the cables.
Piece of cake!!!!
Camera is easy, just a bigger viewfinder in the back.
And if you don't like the pic, delete it and try it again!!

Dave

[Logscaler]

We have been using both horses and oxen to thin our sugar bush. The oxen can pull more but I am partial to the horses - the squeaking of the leather harness and the chains clinking. We will be using horses to gather sap somewhere down the road - they look awesome and as was said before they can sell more syrup than I can! I tried to add some pics but I am on dial-up - it was taking forever!

[Bucket Head]

That's a shame. I'm sure he misses those animals.

Once again, I hope scientists are close to a cure for stupidity and ignorence.

Steve

[tessiersfarm]

I am in the process of training oxen right now, I hope to use them next year. I do not plan to use them every time I collect but I think they will be quite an attraction for public sales.

[gator330]

Tessiersfarm

What breed are you useing for your team? Very Cool to be starting them.

[KenWP]

At least with oxen you can have hamburger if all else fails. Mennonite fellow I know has oxen and makes buggys and such. He does parades and such and for him its free advertiseing.

[tessiersfarm]

Lineback/Holstein Cross. I raise Beef calfs so the animals and feed are already part of the budget, If it works out well I will need to buy a couple of replacement feeder steers and if it doesn't I will butcher the ones I have. It is going pretty well right at the moment, I have one of them starting and stopping on command. I was going to train just one of them and do a single yolk, although I may change my mind. Still pretty early in the process. I should have about 6 to choose from if I do team him up, I buy and raise calfs this time of year and sell them when the grass greens up and prices are higher.

[KenWP]

I would like to raise a bucket bunter for some beef but my keeper would want to make a pet out of it and it would die of old age around here. Funny thing is cows are smart when they want to be.