Ray Ramsey knows as well as anybody that agriculture has progressed past the days of using horses, mules and oxen as working implements — and that’s just one reason why he insists on using draft animal power at Sanborn Mills Farm in Loudon.
Draft animals account for almost 90% of the operations on his farm, which hosts workshops that teach traditional crafts and farming methods, including an upcoming three-day convening of farmers this weekend who utilize draft animal power.
“Every time we lose one of our forefathers, we lose a piece of our history, we lose a little piece every day. So we’re keeping the tradition going and alive so we aren’t losing everything,” he said.
The field day event hosted by the nonprofit Draft Animal Power Network, a national nonprofit whose board Ramsey joined five years ago, will be an educational opportunity for beginner and experienced draft animal teamsters.
On Friday, attendees will gather around intensive workshops to explore the basics of draft horses and oxen, utilizing animal power in farming and in forestry, building an ox cart in a day and handling an emergency rescue situation involving a large animal. Ox carts built on Friday will be sold at a benefit auction the following day.
The rest of the weekend will bring more professional development with shorter session that cover a range of topics, from hoof trimming and harness repair to plowing and basic chainsaw maintenance.
Devising this itinerary and planning the event’s delicate logistics is an undertaking that requires about eight months of foresight, according to Ramsey.
As soon as the network’s board concludes its yearly retreat in December, planning for field days begins.
“I’m their boots on the ground, so the amount of work it creates for me is astronomical, but it’s self-inflicted and fun,” he said.
Ramsey, the farm manager at Sanborn Mills, grew up in a farming family in the Midwest. He participated in 4-H as a kid, but the organization didn’t sponsor a working steer program back then, and his family’s farm operated on such a large scale that draft animals wouldn’t have been a viable option.
Now farming at Sanborn Mills, Ramsey uses draft animals to manage the farm’s daily operations.
“People think, ‘Well, we’re not in the 1800s anymore and that’s silly,’ but there are effective ways of using draft animal power,'” he said. “I don’t have an astronomical tractor payment I’m paying off; I’m able to get into the fields earlier than some because I don’t have to worry about compaction; the waste they make goes back into the ground; and there’s a carbon footprint bonus that goes along with it as well.”
Maggie Smith came to farming by drying heirloom tomatoes on an acre of land near Ithaca, New York, from a full-time job in timber framing. She utilizes her two draft horses for virtually every part of her cultivation process.
She plants with a horse-drawn planter and uses a riding cultivator to keep weeds at bay. Later in the season, she harvests with a bean puller and uses a gas-powered thresher to thresh the beans, and finally, she uses a harrow and plow to prepare the soil for the next harvest.
“A bunch of the equipment, its heyday was 100 years ago,” she said. “You have to turn to your networks, turn to history, turn to the Amish sometimes for help, since they’ve kept a lot of tradition and a lot of equipment alive.”
Smith, who also volunteers on the board of the Draft Animal Power Network, said the event is an opportunity to inform small-scale farmers interested in a more sustainable approach to agriculture that, as much as the practice is a “throwback,” it can also function as a modern technology.
“Modern logging is very destructive of the forest, and horses and oxen make a fabulous tool for more sustainable forestry. With farming, it’s helping to close the nutrient loop. And most of the people I know say, ‘It’s also good for our souls.’ We really enjoy working with the animals — animal people all over the world get that,” she said.
Ramsey said the fair treatment of animals will be a constant undercurrent bolstering each element of the gathering.
Presenters from across the region will bring close to a dozen draft animals with them in large livestock trailers. For Ramsey, the question of those animals’ capacity as laborers comes down to one adage: “It’s better to go light and go often, than to go heavy and go once.”
“If you start out heavy, you may wear that animal out in a couple hours. If you’re continuously heavy, they’re smart enough to know what’s going on and they won’t want to work for you anymore. So, the dignity of the animal is always forefront,” he said.
The Draft Animal Power Network Field Days will take place at Sanborn Mills Farm in Loudon from Oct. 3-5. Organizers encourage online pre-registration at https://www.draftanimalpower.org/field-days, although there is no registration deadline and day-of tickets may be purchased in-person.