ATTRA Question of the Week

L.L.
Washington

Answer: Thank you for your recent request for information from ATTRA, the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. I am pleased to provide you with information on agricultural implements for use with draft horses.

The following online books have a wealth of information on horse drawn farm implements. In addition, the ATTRA publication Draft Animal Power for Farming has a section on equipment and links to further resources including equipment suppliers.

Starkey, Paul. 1989. Harnessing and Implements for Animal Traction: An Animal Traction Resource Book for Africa. A Publication of the Deutsches Zentrum für Entwicklungstechnologien - GATE in: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)

A stimulating and fresh approach to combine a detailed understanding of the practical problems encountered in the field with a comprehensive review of published information. Includes some common harnessing systems, the selection of equipment, implements commonly used for crop production, equipment for transport, and draft assessment and work rates. Written for Africa, but useful for other areas as well.

Thompson, John. 1979. Horse Drawn Implements: Part II, Preparing the Soil. Hampshire, UK: J. Thompson.

A selection of engravings and contemporary descriptions of cultivators, horse-hoes, rollers, and harrows, reproduced from 19th century agricultural books and manufacturers catalogues.

Fischer, Ren. 1995. Permanent Farming Systems Based on Animal Traction: Farmers Handbook. Deutsches Zentrum fr Entwicklungstechnologien.

The first version, the WADA Oxfarmers' Handbook, was produced in 1982 as a guide for the basic training of farmers of the North West Province of Cameroon, in the use of oxen. The Oxen Project was initiated by Wum Area Development Authority, WADA. Over the years, the focus of the project changed from introducing the use of draft animals to encouraging the development of permanent farming systems employing draft animals and the project name changed to Promotion of Adapted Farming Systems based on Animal Traction, PAFSAT. Consequently Handbook Parts dealing with crops, soil, the permanent farming system, vegetables and farm management were added and amended in the subsequent editions.

M.R.
Missouri

Answer: Thank you for contacting ATTRA for information on how to calculate the amount of seeds to buy based on the number of CSA shares. I have listed several resources below, each of which I would encourage you to explore before selecting whichever tools best fit your needs. First of all, there are a couple of ATTRA publication you may enjoy related to this topic:

• Scheduling Vegetable Plantings for a Continuous Harvest
• Community Supported Agriculture

In addition, "Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors" from The Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems contains planning exercises for farmers (even though it was written for instructors). See the section on CSA Crop Planning. This chapter walks you through the process step by step (see summarized steps below), so that by the end you know how many seeds you need to buy to meet your production goals. It also has examples, tables and worksheets in the appendices.

EXERCISE STEPS (from "Teaching Direct Marketing and Small Farm Viability: Resources for Instructors")
1. Determine your harvest outcome goals for each crop
2. Calculate numbers of plants per sowing needed to meet harvest goals.
3. Determine the specific dates for the sowings throughout the entire season that are needed to achieve the harvest goals you have established for each crop.
4. Calculate the number of sowings needed per season to meet specific harvest goals.
5. Calculate amount and cost of seed needed to complete the sowings for each crop.

A few other resources you may find useful are the following:

• University of North Carolina's Growing Small Farms Planning and Record Keeping page. Click to download Spreadsheet 2 – "Planning Spreadsheets for CSA and Farmers' Markets."
• Brookfield Farm's crop planning spreadsheets (used for its own 500-member CSA); their spreadsheets are based on figuring out the number of row feet needed per crop per number of CSA members.
• Colorado State University's CSA program Web page on production (see the CSA Plot Map, the Planting Schedule, and the Planning Chart for examples of how to organize your planning information).
• Rodale Institute's CSA Resource page
• Johnny's Seed catalog vegetable charts