However, these breeds do not look the same as those at the turn of the century. These includeĭurocs, Chester Whites, Hampshire, Yorkshire, Spotted Poland or Landrace. The breeds of pigs that are common today were also common in 1917. They have a peculiar coo, and are sure to let you know if they hear someone, or something, coming. Guinea Hens were kept as a sort of “watch dog”. They are a pheasant type bird that many farmers kept in 1917. In the summer of 2002 we acquired a few Guinea Hens. We also have Silver laced Wyandottes and Austra Lorps. They are historically accurate, as are the black and white speckled Barred Plymouth Rocks. They lay brown eggs and also provide high quality meat. We have a variety of chickens here at the farm. The farmer’s wife would have tended to the chickens, consequently the chicken coop is located near the house. They provided eggs to cook and bake with, and meat for consumption in the summer months. Oxen continue to grow until they are eleven years old, and are expected to weight 3,000 lbs.Ĭhickens would have been an important element on a 1917 farm. They also must be at least three years old and have horns large enough to keep the yoke from falling off while going downhill or backing up. Oxen can be any breed of cow that has been trained to obey voice commands from the time it was young. Cream from the cows would have been use to make butter for the family on our 1917 farm. In 1917 they would have been called Durham’s, but today the Durham is the Milking and Beef Shorthorns. Both cows are Milking Short Horn, also called a Durham cow. Farmers who only had one milking cow in 1917 would have kept a Jersey because of the better quality milk. On our 1917 farm, we use Milking Short Horns and sometimes Jersey cows for milking. By mixing the two milks farmers were able to produce a good quantity of quality milk. Holsteins give a large quantity of low fat milk and Jerseys give a smaller quantity of high fat milk. The price paid for milk was determined partly by the amount of butterfat or cream it contained. Farmers also kept some Jersey cows in their herds to help improve the amount of cream in the milk. These cows were black and white like Holsteins. The result was a cow that gave more milk, but still had a large, if not quite so beefy, calf. When the milk factories demanded Holstein cows, rather than buy a whole new herd, many farmers got together and purchased a Holstein bull and introduced the breed into their herds. The condensed milk factories that bought the farmers’ milk wanted the farmers to keep Holsteins because they produced large quantities of milk. Short horn (Durham) cows were popular with the farmers because they had large calves to sell for beef and gave a reasonable amount of milk. Today most farmers have either a beef herd or a dairy herd, but in 1917 the average farmer wanted cows that would produce both milk and beef. Our horses provide power to do the fieldwork such as plowing, haying, binding, and pulling the sleigh. Nikki is a half Clydesdale, half Shire, and Nelly is a Belgian/Percheron half-breed. Nikki and Nelly are our work horses on the farm. The horses we have at the farm are larger than the typical horse of 1917. Farmers would often breed a large saddle horse to a Percheron stud (a breed of draft horse), resulting in a horse that was small for a draft horse, but very strong and tough. The typical horse in Cache Valley in 1917 was smaller, weighing around 1,300 pounds. This size gave the most pulling power for the amount of feed it required. According to the USDA at this time, the ideal horse was 16 hands high and weighed 1,600 pounds. Horses had to be economically equal to a tractor for use on a farm. Farmers chose specific breeds of animals based on their ability to withstand the Cache Valley weather and their diversity of use.īy 1917, tractors were being used on some farms, however horses are the power that runs the equipment on our farm. Animals were an integral part of this farming. Diversity in farming enabled farmers to grow more than one crop, so that if one crop failed, they could rely on their other crop. Farms were becoming increasingly profitable, as farmers began growing their crops to sell. By 1917 Cache Valley farms were no longer simple subsistence farms, only growing food to keep the farmer and his family alive. In the early part of the twentieth century, animals were an important part of farming here in Cache Valley. This page will feature historical information concerning the 1917 farm and farm practices from the turn of the century until approximately 1920.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |