Draft Animal Farming






Economics of Farming with Horses:
Practicalities** (part 5 of 7)

by Chet Kendell

In the early 1900s many farmers adopted the automobile and internal combustion technology for general transportation, but at the same time continued to use draft horses effectively for their farm traction for another 50 years. Did they understand the selective application of a given technology? Perhaps they did.

Later, in the late 1940s when excess factory capacity became available, farm equipment manufacturers and the agricultural industry in general intensively promoted the sale and use of mechanical specialization including tractors. Many of the equipment companies instituted sales policies of taking in horses as a down payment, with the total cost of the tractor obscured in small monthly payments. Farmers soon began expanding their scale of production to pay for their investment. To this day conventional agriculture continues to emphasis monoculture cropping and equipment specification.

Let's go back to the late 1940s and 1950s. According to our model the next decision point after purchasing the tractor is in 10 years. By then the infrastructure, personnel, knowledge, and ability to effectively use horses on the farm was all but gone. The existing stock of draft horses was largely liquidated and discarded. The stock of complementary equipment had been customized for use with tractors. For the most part, the institutions of our agricultural society had limited their option of using draft horses for farm traction.

In the subsequent 50 years since the 1950s, what has happened? Farm machinery has increased significantly in price and specificity. So have the needed fuel, oil, filters, tires, batteries, and so forth. With little demand for working draft horses, their price remains relatively inexpensive. At the same time over the past 50 years, the threshold value of horses has increased. Today we are at a point where the draft horse may, and perhaps should, be seriously considered as a choice of traction power for our small to medium farms. rh horse logo

Introduction
Assumptions
Career Cost of Horses versus Tractor
Farm Size
Operational Cost for Horses
Debt Financing

**Because Chet Kendell wrote this economic comparison of tractor versus horse farming in 2005, the figures will need to be adjusted to reflect present values. That said, we believe its fundamental conclusion, that tractor farming incorporates a negative cost function that decreases profits while horse farming includes a livestock production function that boosts its economic outcome.
Author

Chet Kendell was on the Economics faculty at Brigham Young University - Idaho in Rexburg. He currently owns Kendell Innovative Dairy Systems LLC in Idaho and lives, farms and writes with his family in Ashton, Idaho. This article appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of Rural Heritage.


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