Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Missoulian: Horse power

This Associated Press article by Joseph B. Frazier begins:
SISTERS, Ore. - If the thought of a farmer patiently working his field behind a plow and horses floods you with pangs of nostalgia, take heart. It's on the rebound.

Ol' Dobbin hasn't run the tractors out of the fields yet, but increasingly, owners of small farmers are finding horse-powered agriculture to be a workable option to mechanization, financially and in other ways.

Lynn Miller, whose quarterly "Small Farmer's Journal" caters to horse-farming and tracks it closely, figures there are about 400,000 people in America who depend in some measure on animal power for farming, logging and other livelihoods, and he says the number is on the rise...
Full article

A semi-related travel note - If you drive on Highway 26/395 between John Day and Mt. Vernon, Oregon, be sure and keep your eyes peeled on the north side. (Well, not if you're the driver, of course. Drivers may glance, when they can do it safely.) What you'll be looking for is the farm near Holliday State Park that has draft horses. We're talking big, beautiful Belgian horses - including some foals and yearlings. Too fun. (If you're not sure what a Belgian horse looks like, you can go here for starters.)

And mules? Don't get me started on mules. We have folks around here who are decidedly serious about mules. (You'll see some nice mules on that same stretch of road, by the way.) After attending a few mule shows, I have to admit that they don't deserve their general bad press.

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