We also have 8 horses and 5 dogs. They also all have a name. The horses names are Jerry, Bud, Bill, Blossom, Pearl, Jill, Rockey and Skip. We do all of our farming with horses instead of tractors. The horses help us plant, harvest, and haul the crops – corn and hay – from the fields and into storage for the cows in the winter when the snow is flying. A small amount of the feed the horses help us produce is also used to feed the horses.

In the spring time, around April 1 when the ground is dry enough, we begin to plant hay and alfalfa seed for the dairy cows. We hitch 6 horses into a forecart and hook the forecart up to a no-till drill with seed hoppers. I then stand on the forecart and drive the team of horses back and forth in the field to put the seeds in the ground. With some rain, sunshine, and warm weather the seeds will germinate and sprout. By June 1, the grass and alfalfa will usually be about 18 inches tall.

When the weather looks to be nice for a few days, we hitch 3 horses into a forecart and hook it up to a hay mower and cut the hay. We let the hay dry for a day or so and then rake it into windrows. Next, we hitch 6 horses into a hay baler with a wagon hitched behind the baler. A hay baler is a machine that cuts and compresses the hay into small bales 18 inches wide and 3 feed long. Each bale weighs about 70lbs, and the wagon can hold about 100 bales. When fully loaded, a wagon can weigh 3 to 4 tons.

At about 17 lbs of grain per day, the horse is eating 6,205 lbs of grain across the year. For the following calculation, lets say that grain is all corn. A typical corn yield in our area is 150 bushels per acre. At 56 lbs per bushel, a horse eats about 111 bushels of corn per year, which is about ¾ acre. A principal we follow is that we need 1 horse per 5 acres of corn we grow, given then volume of work and the speed at which it must take place. Thus, one horse allows us to grow and harvest 5 acres of corn and it eats 0.75 acres of that corn.

Horses also eat hay in the winter, but don’t require as high quality hay as the dairy cows. I estimate one horse eats about 30 lbs of forage or hay per day. In one growing season, if I am making hay for horses, I can get 3 cuttings of hay yielding a total of 250 small bales weighing 35 lbs each. This is a yield of 8,750 lbs of hay per acre. 30 lbs of hay per day across a year is about 10,950 lbs of hay per year. Thus, we also need 1.25 acres of hay to feed our horse helping us grow the 5 acres of corn.

Working with horses in agriculture is fantastic. The sunlight and rain grow the corn and hay, which powers the horses. We feed the harvested crops to the cows and they transform it into milk, which we then process into cheese for your family. Elegant, yet simple.