Going Back To Horses

[carneyman]

Low-tech Mag

 

Basically saying that replacing tractors with horses will be beneficial to the farmer, the environment, and basically everyone...dumbasses.

[2000DV4.8]

Sounds like a bad idea to me... And of course you then have to feed the horses, which eat the stuff that the farmers grow... Just doesn't sound like a good idea.

[tobias]

It's going to be very expensive to pay all of those jockeys.

[carneyman]

Plus daddy, you would probably want to replace them with giraffes anyway...they could work for ya, and then "work" for ya...

[tobias]

I think you mean they'd "get worked!"

 

What the hell is wrong with me?

[carneyman]

No one knows...I'm sure psychologists would love to have you on their couches...

 

 

 

 

 

pun intended.

[pennzoil29]

So, this is the advanced technology approach to our fuel problem. I don't think it will go over at all.

[carneyman]

Oh, I bet all the envirowakos will go for it. Peta would hate it, which is almost enough for me to support it. But come on, what do they expect, every farmer to go out and buy a few hundred horses??!

[svensk]

This would ruin our economy and there would be mass starvation because we couldn't provide enough food for the world.

[nbscanuck]

My brother and I are considered small farmers in our area, we only have 2800 acres of land. Talking with my grandpa, who farmed with horses, he said his team of six Belgian horses could pull a 3 bottom plow that was 4 inches deep. It would take him 2 days to cover 20 acres. Now we crop our land 50% seeded, 50% summerfallow. So we have 1400 acres to keep the weeds down on. It would take us on average 140 straight days of plowing to cover that amount of land with 6 horses, by which time we'd have to start again. So assuming our seeder is the same width as the plow it would take us 140 straight days to get the crop in, which is longer than the time it takes to grow to maturity. You would still be seeding and the first crop would need to be harvested.

 

The last picture in that article shows a combine being pulled by horses. There are 30 horses in that picture and the header of the combine is about 12-14 feet wide. Now for us to combine our land (1400 acres) would take about 100 straight days of work.

 

As for the horses fertilizing the land. "10 KG per horse per day" is the amount of "fertilizer" the estimate a horse produces. This past year we used approximately 40 metric tonnes of fertilizer which consisted of several different types to feed the different needs of the crop and the land. 40 tonnes is 40000 kg, we would need the "fertilizer" from 4000 horses for one day and have them crap evenly over our land. Plus their "fertilizer" will only address ONE type of fertilizer on our land, which would result in lower crop yields.

 

I could go on with the numerous LARGE holes in this article, but I feel I've wasted enough time and effort into proving he's an idiot.

[ZZ327]

HAHA that would suck!