Farmers are choosing horsepower

Maybe it's love. Maybe it's the beauty. Or maybe it just makes horse sense. Whatever the reason, Melissa Madden enjoys working with the pace and rhythm of an animal instead of a tractor.

Madden and her husband, Garrett Miller, use draft horses on their certified organic farm, the Good Life Farm in Interlaken.

"We're trying to get our farm on an energy-descent curve," Madden said, "having fewer fossil fuels needs for the farm every year, instead of more."

Madden and Miller are among a group of farmers who have turned to working with draft animals and avoiding a reliance on machinery. Although it may be argued that tractors are faster or more efficient, farmers are quick to list the benefits of farming with horses.

Kirk Smith, of Freeville, has two Clydesdales he uses for logging, hauling firewood, collecting sap and plowing his garden. Smith said the best thing about using horses versus a tractor is that they're quiet. He also appreciates how life slows down when he's working with horses.

"Life gets a little hectic sometimes," said Smith, who is a full-time farrier. "We have a way of running and getting out of what I would call a normal pace." Smith stressed that if you behave like that around horses, you're liable to get hurt.

"Horses won't put up with that," Smith said. "You can't hurry. You have to function on the scale of speed that the horse wants to work at or can work at. And I think that's good for my brain."

Madden and Miller use permaculture principles on their farm, so grazing is an important part of it. In addition to their draft horses, the farm has perennial vegetable production and fruit orchard, and raises Angus beef, turkeys and geese.

"Every single animal on this farm is working," Madden said. "They're making meat or making fertility or making poop. They're improving the pasture, or doing work like the work horses."

The Good Life Farm has three Belgians and a Percheron. The Belgians came from Amish farmers who "tend to want new horses when their horses get 10 years old," Madden said. But the older horses work well for the farm.

"There's still 10 years of work in these horses. They're a lot calmer. They're really well-educated about farm work," Madden said. Instead of working 10 hours a day, Madden said they're only working about three or four hours a day. "So for us, they're amazing."

When choosing to farm with horses, Madden said, it's important that horses work into the picture of the farm. For the Good Life Farm, their horses are used mainly to mow by pulling either a 6-foot sickle bar mower or a brush hog. They also provide a valuable asset in grazing in hard-to-get-to places.

Donn Hewes, of Marathon, is passionate about farming with horses and mules on his farm, Northland Sheep Dairy. He enjoys "building a working, communicating relationship with these giant, quiet, hard-working animals."

One of the things Hewes believes people need to learn when working with draft animals is "knowing when a horse is ready to do a different kind of a test." It's all about judgment, Hewes said.

Horses are economical, "if you will limit your farm to their scale," Hewes said. On his farm, the number of horses and mules matches the number of wanted sheep, the number of hay bales they need to make, and the number of acres to farm.

"Working within limits has many other values that spin off from it. Taking the best care of the land, soil, water and air that you have are all direct results of working within and appreciating the reality of limits," Hewes said.

Hewes has one Suffolk and two Percheron draft mares, weighing between 1,600 and 2,000 pounds. He bred all three mares to his mammoth jack donkey, creating mule offspring. The three mules are 2 years old, and Hewes plans to train them to do farm work as well.

Hewes, who is the president of the Draft Animal-Power Network, is passionate about working with beginning farmers interested in farming with draft animals. Through the Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming, Hewes will provide hands-on training for beginning and aspiring farmers in a workshop at his farm on Sept. 20 and 21 — "Groundswell Draft Animal Practicum: Introduction to Working with Draft Animals." The workshop will focus on farming with horses or mules to partially or fully replace tractors for plowing, cultivating and cutting hay.

Follow Kitty Hall-Thurnheer on Twitter at @KittyKatHall.

Groundswell Draft Animal Practicum: Introduction to Working with Draft Animals will be offered from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 20-21 at Northland Sheep Dairy at 3501 Hoxie Gorge Freetown Road in Marathon. Sliding scale fee is $125 to $290. To register, e-mail info@groundswellcenter.org or call (607) 319-5095.