Traditional Agriculture

[Dave]

Hi All
Finally managed a drive out yesterday, a lovely sunny but cold day, the main reason for the excursion was to count the number of Rooks nest, see separate post, but I decided to get deliberately lost to try out my new Sat Nav. Travelling up roads that I had never explored before, I was surprised to be confronted by a scene straight out of the agricultural history books, A working pair of Oxen, with a cart full of manure, which the driver was distributing over a small rectangle of newly ploughed land. The suprise was that I was only around 40 Km from León capital, and the majority of the farms around here are very modern, but in this tiny corner the clock was turned right back.
Regards
Dave

[steveT]

Great photo.......interesting how the harness is put together.

[nick]

Amazing Dave. Thanks for that.

[andyj]

the harness is fascinating dave. i've never seen one like that. My girlfriend's dad would be very interested in this. He is very keen on argicultural technology.

Andy

[Petrea]

Seems to be the same sort of harness in this part of the country - even though I haven´t seen it working in the fields!

Strange to see the ugly ropes with the pretty head gears!

[Simon]

Nice one Dave.

A interesting juxtaposition of ancient and modern, i.e. the ox cart and your SatNav.

One question, which one of you knew better where they were? 

Ha ha

Simon

[Dave]

Hi Simon and All
At that point I, the Oxen and my Sat Nav, new were we were, it was only later when I was driving up a perfectly decent road, and the Sat Nav told me to find the nearest road, that I began to doubt, but it got em home fine.
A bit more information gleaned about the Oxen, the owner is called Agostin, and apparently he has four vacas (note not oxen) that he uses to work the land occasional, in fact he is trying to sell them , as he is nearly 80 years old and fancies retirng, I was asked if i was interested in buying them but I dont think a  63 Sqm terrace is sufficient. A note about the harness, it consists of Leather and rope and is tied around the horns, with no halter ´the old fashioned way´. All this information was gleaned from an elderly gentleman in the next village who only has one Vaca ´Agostin tiene cuatro´. I am hoping to find Agostin some day soon and give him a copy of the photo.
regards
Dave

[Technopat]

Great pics! Dave!
What price cabestro? Eng. anyone?

Cheers!
Technopat

[nick]

Nice idea Dave to give him a copy of the photo. I'm sure he'd love it.