Trying to take care of a 300 ha farm with horses - how much does it cost

"Vigantas Indrašius, who grows 150 Lithuanian heavy and large zemaitukas horses, manages 300 ha, started selling tractors and implements intended for them a year ago - the man decided to work the land with horses, and to buy specialized equipment for this purpose from the Amish living in the United States, who follow a very traditional way of life.

 

It is true that, although the hope of the farmer was to adapt to the new conditions quite quickly, reality showed its claws - the transition was not as quick and painless as one would like. It also turned out that equipment intended for horses is much more expensive than equipment intended for tractors, and it is expensive and difficult to bring it from America. In addition, since these are implements made in non-EU countries, EU support cannot be requested for the modernization of the farm.

 

An expensive pleasure

 

The farmer admits that he understood that the transition would not be quick, but very expensive. Initially, they plan to grow grain crops on an area of 20 ha.

 

"We sold what we could. Some implements, such as manure spreaders, were never needed because the number of animals was decreasing. We also kept a couple of tractors "Belarus" and some trailed machinery. I realized that we cannot switch to horses so drastically right away, because it is simply too expensive, and it is not clear how to get technical support from the USA", says V. Indrašius.

 

He says that the fact that the Amish community is quite peculiar and they do not want to deal with bureaucracy also contributes here. It is difficult to even pay for purchases, because they only work with a few small banks that do not interact with the commercial banks operating here. For three months, the farmer could not transfer money. He wrote a check, but for that he had to go to Denmark and open an account there. Transportation is also expensive. Bought for 10 thousand euro cultivators and 5 thousand paid for bringing them to Lithuania. In order to collect 15 thousand I had to sell a 4-hull reversible plow, a 4-meter-wide cultivator and an old but good combine used to thresh 100 ha of grain.

 

Looking for cheaper

 

A representative of Amish equipment works in Germany, but the surcharges are still too high for the Lithuanian and he tries to buy the equipment cheaper from the USA.

 

"A horse cultivator is pulled by 4 horses, although, as practice has shown, 5 or 6 are needed. We also faced the problem that we lag behind the Americans in breeding.

 

The Lithuanian heavy horses on our farm are some of the best, but there are simply too few of them to be able to collect horses that agree and have a matching step", V. Indrašius explains the subtleties.

 

He names more nuances that are catching up, a farmer who wants to revive an old way of farming. For example, harnesses. Bought cheaper and newer Polish ones. However, they were not suitable for hard work - rubbing the shoulders of animals. The old Soviet ones didn't fit either. Solving these nuances is a challenge for the farmer himself.

 

"Our farm is too big to do everything with horses. In addition, the public still has a hard time accepting this farming method. For example, one of my best workers, to whom I offered 20,000 euros in hand per year, left his job. He simply didn't like working with animals, he was better with technology," says V. Indrašius and does not hide that he believes that the path he has chosen is realistic.

 

As for the future, they plan to buy a mower, plows and use horses much more seriously in the spring. Arable land will be 20 ha, no more. It is necessary to accumulate experience, to evaluate performance. In addition, he hopes to hit the so-called Green Course and this way of farming will be supported.

 

Small livestock farms

 

"When it comes to the real application of horses, you don't have to focus on farms the size of ours. We want to show that small farmers can manage their land without polluting the environment and to reduce production costs by using horses instead of tractors", - the fact that farms managing several thousand hectares will start working with horses does not give V. Indrašius hope.

 

He also names the target group - these are family livestock farms of up to 50-70 ha, keeping up to 20 cows. Work there is not optimal with tractors. All that is needed is modern equipment, which is much more advanced than the one that pre-war farmers worked with. For example, with that cultivator that is already in use on the farm, it did a great job of eradicating couch grass.

 

"Livestock farms do not focus on grain, where arable land is needed. 20 cows are enough for 50 hectares, of which at most 10 are cultivated land. The rest of the pasture. And 10 ha is easy to take care of with modern horse-drawn equipment," adds V. Indrašius.

 

Such an area can be sown in 2 days, and everything can be arranged in a week. It is also much more beneficial for the land itself, as heavy tractors compress the soil too much when driving. Also, no fuel is used.

 

Speaking about his farm, he says that to work 300 ha with horses alone, he simply won't have enough funds to purchase modern equipment. Amish-made 2.1 meter wide mower, which can cut 5-6 ha per day, costs 10 thousand there in euros and it still needs to be brought. But the advantage is that when cutting with the horse the meadow is fertile for much longer than when it is maintained by a tractor. In order to cut 200 hectares of pastures, horses need to work for almost two months. 25 ha are cut per day with a tractor.

 

"A horse does a lot of work. The Amish have reached such a level that there is almost no manual work left in gardening. Everything is done, from laying the film to weeding," says V. Indrašius.

 

In the case of horse breeding, this is support of around 200 euros per year per animal kept. However, according to V. Indrašius, it is difficult to compete with the state stud farm, which receives quite large subsidies, and it is difficult to compete in the market when selling animals. He sells horses himself for breeding, work, entertainment, food.

 

One horse needs 1.5-3 ha, depending on the fertility of the land."

 

Man tries to solve problems in a modern way. Has a lot of land, a lot of horses. Knows about the Amish. He is trying to save money by buying implements from America. Not afraid of risk. Shares acquired knowledge with others. This is all good.