Sunday, August 13, 2023

Acreage

There's something about two and a quarter tons of beef on the hoof headed right at you...

12MP photo from Nikon D3 & 80-200mm f/2.8 AF

That's a lot of muscle, and was a favorite source of motive power among the early U.S. settlers staking out farmland in the old Northwest Territory, what was to become Indiana. They didn't need to be shod, fed themselves on grass, were less likely than horses to be stolen by native tribes, and if one of your tractors broke a leg you could console yourself with a good steak dinner.

Did you know that an acre was basically originally defined as the area that a yoke of oxen could plow in a day?

A yoke of oxen are trained together from the time they're weaned and always are yoked on the same side. Only a lummox would try and switch out his nigh ox and his off ox.

24MP photo from Nikon D7100 & 16-80mm f/2.8-4E VR