Horse Powered Market Gardening Economics
Case Study: Maple Hill Farm

From October to mid-May we stable our horses primarily in straight tie stalls. We have very limited pasture, approximately one acre, but we turn the horses out daily in a small board fenced paddock. During the summer months, the horses spend their time in this paddock as I simply don’t have the time to handle the manure that would collect in their stalls. They do come in to their stalls every morning and night for their daily grain.  We manage our pasture by limiting the time we allow the horses to graze it. Maybe two to four hours a day as long as it’s growing and not getting overgrazed. A gate leads directly from the paddock to the pasture so we don’t lead the horses anywhere. Our paddock is only maybe 20 feet from the barn door so we simply open that gate and the horses walk into their stalls at feeding time.

During the October through May stabling season we park our spreader outside a side door. It sits slightly lower than our stalls, so it’s a quick, easy task to fill the wheelbarrow and push it up the planks and dump it over the into the spreader. Although we add straw daily to their stalls, we only cleam them out once every week or two. We use probably 100 bales of straw a year and maybe 600 plus bales of hay. Hay is fed daily year round because of our limited pasture. We feed ear corn and speltz daily, all grown on our farm.  

You may notice that we also have no time allocated for moving temporary fencing — we don’t use it. We live in a suburban area with housing developments sprouting all along our road. We have to have absolute escape-proof fencing to prevent potential liability. An animal getting loose in our neighborhood could cause untold amount of damage — if not causing a dreaded accident. So we have a woven wire fence around our pasture. This past spring we replaced the original we put up when we moved here, at a cost of approximately $1200. We also replaced our small paddock board fence at another cost of $600. These represent long term — 30 years plus — expenses that give us peace of mind.

With the age spacing between our horses we have both the benefit of the quiet, slow, dependable character that an older horse gives while also benefiting from the strength and eagerness found in a younger animal. We employ both of these characteristics in the different jobs on the farm. However, not everything goes as planned when you suddenly lose a horse. Unfortunately, if you have horses for a length of time you will face that situation. For us, it most recently occurred two years ago when one of our Suffolk horses suddenly stopped eating. After visits from our local vet, we had to decide just how much money we wanted to spend looking for the cause. As uncaring as it may sound, we just weren’t in the position to empty the bank account investigating every potential cause. We had to draw a line as to how much money we could put into vet bills, give the horse every possible chance to recover, and then move on. That’s also part of horse farming.  

As I alluded to earlier, one of our goals was to spread the workload as evenly as possible throughout the year. Keeping your horses working throughout the year will make a big difference in their attitude and temperament. Obviously, there are tasks that are seasonable but we’ve been able to find work for them even in winter except when snow is too deep or it’s simply bitter cold. For us, that’s spreading manure or compost. By winter, the manure from our 350 bird laying flock and the cow pens is getting deep. Additionally, in our area we have access to free mushroom compost. As long as the weather is fit — we like to spread. We also like to plow in early winter for early spring vegetables. Keeping your horses working consistently makes for better horses and teamsters.  

Unlike most produce farmers, we also grow hay and grain for our livestock. Obviously, this can result in quite a heavy workload in the summer. I do this mostly because I really enjoy growing hay and grain. Diversity is beautiful on the farm. To minimize the summer workload we do a couple of things. First, our growing and marketing season is long. We start selling our first bedding plants in late march and we’re still at market at Thanksgiving. By having such a long cash flow season we’re not compelled to push to make all our money in a relatively short time. We can space our vegetable growing over a longer period. Additionally, we grow mostly timothy and clover mix which only requires two cuttings versus the four or five cuttings neighbors are taking off their alfalfa. We also only cut maybe an acre of hay at one time. It’s an amount I can handle and work into our vegetable production. First cutting hay may take me six weeks depending on the weather. Now the downside is that not all my hay is quality. Some gets a little old before I get to it. But as long as it gets done before we start speltz harvest in July we’re satisfied. Corn doesn’t get picked until late fall which easily fits in.