Meet the Paddocks, the farmers still using horse power
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Swapping tractors for horses has improved soil quality on this Dartmoor farm – but is it a financially viable alternative to the current model of agriculture?
From the early 1900s, my Grandfather farmed near Falkirk, then near Kidderminster, then to Angus, and my Dad often talked about the horses on all the farms and could remember all their names.
He told a story (probably told in many farming families) about when my Grandfather got his first tractor. The whole family came out to watch him heading down the field and he was seen to suddenly stand up pulling back on the steering wheel and shouting "Whoa ye bugger. Whoa" as he and the tractor went through the hedge.
Well done for getting going with horses. Some 30 years ago I wrote a serious of articles in Heavy Horse magazine about the jobs that horses can do more efficiently than tractors, and we have used our competitive horses to work the land for over 40 years now and we have now have a demonstration farm on Exmoor trying to encourage others to do similar things.
From the early 1900s, my Grandfather farmed near Falkirk, then near Kidderminster, then to Angus, and my Dad often talked about the horses on all the farms and could remember all their names.
He told a story (probably told in many farming families) about when my Grandfather got his first tractor. The whole family came out to watch him heading down the field and he was seen to suddenly stand up pulling back on the steering wheel and shouting "Whoa ye bugger. Whoa" as he and the tractor went through the hedge.
Well done for getting going with horses. Some 30 years ago I wrote a serious of articles in Heavy Horse magazine about the jobs that horses can do more efficiently than tractors, and we have used our competitive horses to work the land for over 40 years now and we have now have a demonstration farm on Exmoor trying to encourage others to do similar things.