First is the impact on the land. The small footprint of hooves is far greater that the 2 ' wide harvester (Timberjack) tracks, or even full size skidder wheels with chains.
We use mechanized gear because of less ground damage.
Comments ?
JMNSHO
Have you ever actually ever been around a horse logging job?
We use horses to extract alot of our timber, We can use a skid trail all day and there is barely any trail there haha.
Loved his comment though "Make alitte, spend less."
An unfortunate urban romantic account of a very tiny niche in harvesting.
Horse logging is an incredible skill that few have. There are many realistic problems with using horses for harvesting for woodlot owners.
First is the impact on the land. The small footprint of hooves is far greater that the 2 ' wide harvester (Timberjack) tracks, or even full size skidder wheels with chains.
We use mechanized gear because of less ground damage.
Second, horses cannot work wet, rocky, or hilly terrain. Snow depths much over a couple of feet are tough on the animals.
Third, on larger, long term harvests, your gear can sit overnight in place ready to work the next morning. Horses not, they need to be sheltered, returned to the barn.
Fourth, the work done by one feller and horses is long and tedious. The net BTU use is higher with animals than gear doing the job faster, more efficiently.
The article does the straw dog ( explanations online for those who don't understand :thinking about "clear cutting". It hasn't been done in the northeast for decades on any kind of scale. More common are patch cuts, or corridor harvests, leaving trees we mark for later crops.
Most skilled harvester ( fell, delimb, cut, carry ) operators leave the same paths as horse loggers, as well as selectively cut.
Comments ?
JMNSHO
Three jobs ( 3 ) in the past 6 years. Why ask ? Why the H would I even mention it if there was no experience. What's up John ?
Since you're challenging some facts and experience, how about your experience with horse logging ? Arkansas ain't here BTW. :messed:
Discuss facts rather than attack personally: footprint, energy use, timeline, your actual ("actually") use of horses for harvesting in a region with snow, boggy ground, bony woodlands, hills. Not warm flatland.
There are 2 horse loggers in this area. It is a definite sideline, hired out for landowners wanting to "make a green statement" not harvest for forest management, or profit. The 2 guys know this. Their draft animals are used on their farmland.
What is not understood is why so many of you online here get bent out of shape defensive. They're only opinions: some scratched online ( huh ? ), and some from real world, on the ground life.
Hey, it's virtual.:musical-note:
Guess the logs are levitated.:confusedn:
What do your animals use for fuel ? Cost ? Winter feed ? Vet care ? Shoes ?
Transport (trailer)? Damage to that skid trail wet or unfrozen ?
What's "alitte" ?
Hey log butcher I think you should check your facts before throwing rocks ! Number one if you read the address of chainsaw man xx its Missouri not Arkansas although they are plenty of good horse loggers in ark,! Number two you wish too address the cost of horse logging verses s conventional logging, here it is the total cost for feeding vet and horse shoeing is no more than 400.00 per month there is no carbon used too produce the the fuel the horses regenerate there waste back too nature and reproduce there own food can your skidder do that? The foot print of a skider is two foot wide and it destroys more regeneration than it ever saves in compression and we all know what the ruts are like when a skidder goes through the woods ! It cost at least 500.00 in our area too move equipment and I carry my horses back and forth with me going from thee house to the woods and back ! This is a expense I would have too pay regardless and it allows me too carry all my gear with me in the horse trailer so I have almost all my tools and drill press welder oil gas and spare parts with me if something breaks I don't have to travel to town to get it fixed! That is a huge savings! I am not chained to my business my equipment is payed for and if I want too take a day or two off I can without worrying about making that huge skkider payments, and I have no problems finding more work and better timber because all I have too do is show pic of my last job and people jump at the chance to have us work there property! Although there is no way that the horse can skid out as much as a skidder can the bennefitts of using horses out way the extra timber the skidder will produce, and will far out way the damages that a skidder crates!
As far as working the animals on hilly rocky ground we live in the Ozark mountains some of the hilly est and rockiest terrain in the US and we do it very day, the horses skidd up hill down hill and over rocks and never have a problem we work rain days here and back in my home state of Indiana and where I took my forestry training in Vermont when heavy equipment cant work with out damaging the soil! And as far as Rick is concerned he has probably twice as much knowledge about logging as the both of us combined!!!!!
Here's some real horse logging, circa 1955. My uncle Pete is on the right, I'm the 4 year old in the middle, my sister Vicki is on the left. There was a 20 acre woodlot about a half mile from the farm here. My grandfater had a Farmall H but it never went up there, only the horses. Pete had his leg broken a few years before this photo from a rolling log. This was all for firewood, the only heat in the farmhouse was a huge wood furnace & the Andes stove in the kitchen. I've got some more of these somewhere, I'll have to try to hunt them up.
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