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 ...
$5000 will pay for enough solar panels to generate real-time 120 volt power, controllers and several deep-cycle rechargable batteries, paid for an delivered.
Not enough to power a tractor real-time, but certainly enough to charge enough batteries to run an electric tractor through 40 acres every couple days, perhaps even every day if a back-up battery pack were possible.
Seriously I’m looking (realtime) at an electric scooter right now as I post this - which I use (most recently yesterday afternoon) for weekend trips to the store - takes about an hour to recharge, zero gas required, and which can in fact be charged via solar in a pinch (though I use 120v ac charging since it’s a lot faster, as long as the grid is functioning)
Let’s please not let our instinctive opposition to ideas the left attempts to force upon America, blind us the the stopped clock every once in a while being right.
Solar is, where climate permits, very truly virtually free.
I mean, after the start-up costs. Which are not insignificant.
Wow! You got a shoe-box?
When the Zantu government community activists come around after Obama’s second term, they will just shoot your oxen if you don’t hand over your crops.
Little house on the prairie 2012..just leave out Harriet Olsen and nobody gets hurt.
////It doesn’t hurt to think about these things as the cost of fuel could become prohibitively expensive.\\\\
How else do you think that Farming methods have advanced to where they are today? The increase of operating costs inspired a much higher rate of efficiency.
The cost will never become “prohibitively expensive” because new methods and technological developments will continue to advance to offset the increased costs.
It’s like drilling for Oil. The technology allows us to drill wells that would have been considered impossible just 10 years ago. The result is a much lower cost to produce a barrel of Oil in spite of the much higher increased cost to drill.
Looking at the average number of kids per Amish family it is clear how they spend their free time.
About the same time as an oxen, since oxen are castrated bull cattle.
Doesn't hurt to keep a bull around the farm.
Nothing else to do, might as well make another farm hand.
Not with the pack of lunes running this countries energy policy. It could happen.
Solar panels will not anywhere (near) power a tractor real-time. No way, that is true.
However if enough battery power can be built into a small tractor, think of a Prius - enough solar panels could be used to recharge a small electric tractor.
Maybe one day on, two days charging. Or one day on, then swap out the battery packs to recharge on the solar array, while the next day using the battery pack charged via an array the previous day.
I’m already using a battery vehicle (very simple scooter) on weekends for short trips - which can (I’ve done it) be re-charged in a day via solar - on appx $100 of very basic, small solar panels.
Total cost for the panels, and scooter, $300.
Granted I’m not going anywhere very far, or charging at all unless the sun it out.
But seriously I know this works. I’m doing it.
Larger batteries. More panels, More batteries, and absolutely I could farm 40 acres. I’m telling you.
Absolutely it’s possible.
PS off topic right now watching FNC right now - sort of liking this guy Buddy Roemer.
In fact, quite bit. :)
LOL! Good one!
Well, you could use your Holstein or Angus to pull “Part Time”.
On the general topic of farming and food-supplies:
“China’s Yangtze river closed to ships by severe drought
Telegraph ^ | 05/12/11 | Peter Foster
Posted on Sunday, May 15, 2011 10:48:58 AM by TigerLikesRooster
China’s Yangtze river closed to ships by severe drought
The Yangtze river, the longest waterway in Asia and China’s most important shipping route, has been closed by the worst drought in 50 years that has left cargo ships stranded and 400,000 people without drinking water... “
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2720160/posts
Collect the flat it in a special ox-flat-receptical and use it as an anesthesia "for libs only"...al naturale. (of course, color it green--optional)
well, it's certainly OS
I commend you for being honest as well as ambitious!
I would think that the battery issue would eventually become a real pain though.
They break down too fast and cost too much to replace every 5 years. That cost alone would quickly eat up any “free power” misconception you might have. From a “being off the grid” standpoint though, you could provide yourself with power when nobody else has it. Which makes it a very positive advantage.
If it keeps you happy and healthy, then nothing else matters and the more power to you! (no pun intended)
Bulls are like, stud horses, takes an expert to handle them. Whereas a gelding and an oxen are tame, just big pets in most cases. An old ox probably will get over a ton in weight depending on the breed.
one wacko does not a trend make
You have that right, we may all be relying of “Oxen”, horses and bicycles to get around in the coming future! (Hell, don’t even rule out Rickshaws if you are rich!)
I want one pulled by a liberal.
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