EnviroLink Forum

Well, from a sustainbility viewpoint, either eatting or letting the horses return to the earth naturally as possible could serve the same purpose. I guess it would matter what was the owners wishes. Horse hide and bones to be ground for soil-additive might be undertaken by some. I just don't see them as regular chow; not like goats or cattle or ducks. Again; if it was a question of life or death, that'd be another matter.

You could always use them as "fertilizer" generators.

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TANG SOO!

That'll be a given. I think one of the duties of misbehaving youth on the colony will be 'pooper-scooper' duty.

I'll conceed; this can be a akward: assuming what's good for the earth is good for another planet.

A) there will be a recon flight sent ahead to get the planet's 'pulse' as it were; this will help termendously, of course, but no, it can't cover all the bases. Planets are so complex: look at us here; we're still trying to figure out how everything works! So this is one of the risk factors involved with being a colonist. Some colonists will take a 'Don't touch ANYTHING' approuch; on the grounds we could be destroying a entire eco-system. There will, of course, be those who feel the very oppisite. They will have to learn to live with each other: like it or not; their in the same boat. Pray wisdom is around somewhere to guide them both!

B) in fact, there is a couple differences in the two planets I'm having to work on. Example: I decided that there would be no insect-pollanized plants on Zeta. The colonists will have to bring bees; if they hope to eat the foods their used to. Which means clover. Will Zeta-native critters find bees(Or more likely, honey) very tasty? the colonists will find out, one way or the other! Bee-hives will be vital, life or death items to have.

C)One of the basic rules of permaculture is; never introduce foreighn plants or critters if at all avoidable. One should instead look for critters already living there as fill-ins to take the place of unsuitable 'out-siders'. This is a rule that will have to be applied at Zeta. Native critters and plants that can sustain humans(And their livestock, ideally) will have to be sought nearly from the moment the recon flight touches surface.

Agreed horses would be faster then oxen. But then we don't usually time field plowing.

I also agree horses would have a longer life span. But then if whatever we use is being bred for replacements, then lifespan may not be as important.

Part of the reason I think oxen may be a better choice, is our own poineers, in many cases, used oxen rather then horses for farm work. I assume since they had the choice of either, the oxen were considered the better choice. I always thought it was in part because they could eat what they do not use to work the field, and as I pointed out earlier the norm was to drink cows milk rather then horse milk. So with one animal, they have their tractor, a replacement animal they could and were used to eating, milk they were used to drinking, and an animal without some of the extra work a horse would require. Don't have to put shoes on a cow or trim it's feet.



This is why I thought the cow better. You get more milk, and if you need the cow for farm work, you can do that and still feed the calf from twice a day milkings. That's the down side of a horse. A bottle fed foal is a pain, something they wouldn't want to hassle with, and being bottle fed it's always slower getting bigger.

Given a choice I'd take a horse, but for Iowanic's story, it seemed to me the cow had more benifits and a smaller downside.

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I don't know what your problem is but I bet its hard to pronounce.

Yeah, we're not just on a learning curve; this is a learning circle.

http://www.oregon.com/attractions/orego ... trivia.cfm

4. Most pioneers traveled the trails west by oxen. However, the Gold Rush of 1849 depleted the supply of oxen in the departure areas along the Missouri River, so gold seekers had to use more horses in 1850.

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With friends like Guido, you will not have enemies for long.

“Intellect is invisible to the man who has none”
Arthur Schopenhauer

"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits."
Albert Einstein

Well it's your story Iowanic. Maybe you'll find a new animal on your planet that has the best of both -maybe you can call it an Equin-ox.

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The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason. --G.K. Chesterton

This is just such interesting research! I found out today 'mature' honey bees often don't like alfalfa, because it's a bit rough collecting the nectar; so trying to use 'young' bees is the way to go for some. Who'd thought it?

I am having problems getting fruit into the diet of the colonists, though and it annoys me. Oh, i think we can get stuff like melons and berries to work, but trees take a bit to grow into producing and transplating entire trees all the way from Earth has problems.

I'm shooting for using dwarf tree species, at least early on. Seems like they got 'mini' versions of just about every full size fruit out there! It's hard digging up info on these mini-trees, though.

How about having your colonists land on a planet with fruit trees. While their fruit may not be what they are used to, they could adapt and find out it is very good. You would even have the ability to invent your own kind of fruit for the story, and add some suspense by having the colonists figure out which ones are good and which ones are posion.

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I don't know what your problem is but I bet its hard to pronounce.

Certainly that's a angle. "Mommy, do we eat the blue or poka dot ones?" "Taste it and we'll see, honey." I just thought a safety position early on would be try to bring some crops we know we can eat, till we find suitable native stuff. It will, in fact, be the most sustainable thing. use crops that are adapted to the conditions.

Here's a update on my progress:

I think I got working numbers for the livestock.

Mind, I'm using a 'mock-up' settlement of about 100 households(350 colonists).

The cast of critters:

300 cattle (Beef-type)
50 goats (milk-type)
24 horses
500 chickens (Mostly layers, but some 'broilers')


The horses and cattle continue to give me headaches.

Horses: too many? But I can't see working with less. That's 12 'teams' and some will surely have to be rested sometime.

Cattle: there's more then enough beef to meet the settlement's requirements, so beef will mostly be a trade item with other settlements.
But there's leather too and I don't think you can provided a years worth of leather clothing fpr 350 people from 300 cattle(Assuming you'd kill all , which isn't likely)

I'm still poking about in regards to bee-keeping. They'll be a large number of hives, I'm guessing. At least there shouldn't be a honey shortage.