Draught Animal Definition
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Environmental Comparison Of Draught Animal And Tractor Power
Draft animal, any domesticated animal used in drawing heavy loads. Draft animals were in common use in Mesopotamia before 3000 bc for farm work and for pulling wheeled vehicles. Their use spread to the rest of the world over the following 2, 500 years. While cattle, usually in teams, have been used most often as draft animals, horses and donkeys have supplanted them in many areas. Some horses—such as the Belgian horse, the Clydesdale, the Suffolk, the Shire, and the Percheron—have been bred to serve as draft animals; they weigh more than 725 kg (1, 600 pounds) and stand at least 16 hands high. The Asian water buffalo, however, is probably the most important draft animal in the world today. Many of the some 165 million domesticated water buffalo worldwide are used as draft animals, particularly in tropical Asia, where they assist in the production of rice. The role of draft animals in agriculture in less-developed regions of the world continues because of the advantages they offer: their feed is easily grown and commonly available; little maintenance of the animals is required; their manure is a valuable resource for the farmer; and the animal itself may become a source of food or other products at the end of its useful life.
A harness is necessary in using a draft animal efficiently. Such harnesses must allow the transfer of the animal’s muscle power to the task at hand. With oxen and similar animals a yoke that rests on the back of the animal is used to attach the harness, while with horses and other equines a rigid, padded collar is used. The harness itself may be a simple arrangement of ropes connecting the yoke or collar to a plow, or it may be a complex arrangement of strapping to support the shafts of a cart, wagon, carriage, or sled and to allow the animal to pull the vehicle in comfort, either singly or in concert with others. Long teams of draft animals, used in pairs and numbering as many as 24 animals, were common in the 19th century for pulling especially heavy loads, such as large machine parts or bulk commodities.
In many places the use of mixed teams, as with one horse and one mule or one ox and one cow hitched in tandem, has been common among small farmers. Draft animal power has also been used to pump water, thresh grain, draw barges, and haul logs out of forests in lumbering operations. In addition to bovine and equine species, reindeer, elephants, camels, llamas, sheep, goats, and dogs have been used as draft animals.Background Basic considerations Fundamentals of harness and implement design Validation of the equation linking implement draught to weight and angle of pull Significance of the tillage implement draught equation Matching the animal, the harness and the implement Bibliography
Animal Draught Power
The author was formerly Professor of Agricultural Machinery Engineering at Silsoe College, Cranfield University, Bedford, the United Kingdom, following which he was awarded an Emeritus Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust to undertake studies on equipment design for animal draught tillage. His address is: 53 Alameda Road, Ampthill MK45 2LA, United Kingdom, Tel: 0044 1525 402508, Fax: 0044 1525 406373.
The author Is grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for the award of the Emeritus Fellowship, which enabled him to undertake the work reported in this article; to the Director and staff of the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, particularly Dr Anne Pearson; to Tom Copland, Head of the Mechanisation Section, Scottish Centre of Agricultural Engineering, Midlothian, United Kingdom; to Dr M.A.M. Msabaha, Zonal Director of Research and Training, Southern Highlands Zone, Mbeya, the United Republic of Tanzania; to Richard Shetto, Head of Agricultural Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture Research and Training Centre, Mbeya; to numerous farmers and farm workers In the Mbeya District; and to all others who have been interested and/or involved in the investigations.Background
Tillage operations involve an interaction between an implement and the soil, Usually aimed at land and/or seed-bed preparation, weed control or assistance in soil moisture management.
Agricultural Mechanization Strategy Adrianus G. Rijk 1
When undertaken using human labour, these operations are generally associated with farming drudgery; they demand intensive power inputs but rarely require the judgement or control that helps to provide interest and mental stimulus for the operator. Animal power can increase the worker's motivation and status while enabling more land to be cultivated with reduced demands on human energy inputs.
Animal draught tillage is part of a complex system affected by a wide range of interacting factors at different levels, as indicated in Figure 1. At the fundamental (operator) level, the animal draught tillage system comprises the draught animal, the tillage implement, the harness, the operator and the soil to be cultivated. The fundamental system is influenced by the farming system of which it is a part and, beyond that, by the national infrastructure and- policies that can determine the availability of local skills and the cost of many essential inputs, often as the result of political decisions.
Any system works best when all factors are well matched in achieving their purpose. At present, many animals are overloaded. This article shows how it is possible, by a judicious mixture of theoretical and practical knowledge, to match draught animals with appropriate cultivation implements in order to make the best use of their work potential, while bearing in mind the constraints to which most small-scale farmers are subject.
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1. The animal draught tillage system in context - Le système de travail du sol par traction animale dans son contexte - La labranza con animales de tiro dentro de un contexto de sistema de producciónBasic considerations
· the implement must do the job the farmer wants changing the soil condition or eliminating weeds according to the need; · the implement must not overload the animals - they should tee able to manage as full season's work without stress; · the harness must provide an efficient and safe connection between the animals and the implement with workloads distributed comfortably on the animals; · the implement and harness should be easily adjustable to meet the above conditions and to ensure that the operator can control the system; · the whole system must be user-friendly and sustainable in the context of the farmers' resources and the available infrastructural support.
These requirements are usually met in varying degrees by traditional systems that have been developed by observation and experiment over many centuries. Modern systems must be developed more quickly to meet the different circumstances and pressing needs of today's farmers. The necessary accelerated development depends on using both theoretical and practical knowledge to maximum effect.
Matching Tillage Implements To Draught Animal Potential
The draught capability of a work animal is the force that it can exert to pull an implement. An animal's draught capability is limited by biomechanical, physiological and environmental factors, which are mainly a consequence of, one, certain features of the particular animal, such as animal species, conformation, health and nutritional status, and body mass of the animal, and, two, the operators' ability to use and manage their animals, such as working speed and duration of the effort (length of the working day) and attention given to the animal's welfare, including feed, comfort, training, health and handling.
As a general rule, provided all other factors are favourable, bovines (mainly cattle and buffaloes) should be able to provide a sustainable draught force of 10 to 12 percent of their body weight, while equines (mainly horses, donkeys and mules) and camels are able to sustain draughts of 12 to 14 percent of their body weight. Farmers and operators are rarely able to measure the draught force and must be sensitive to signs of physical discomfort and unwillingness to continue working, which are associated with overload stress. It is often possible to alleviate the overload promptly by suitable adjustments to the implement and harnessing there is nothing to be gained by forcing an animal to work beyond its innate capability.
Harness and implement designs have progressed on the basis of observation and experimentation over thousands of years, leading to some remarkably well-matched combinations, of which the two-ox shoulder yoke and beam implement shown in Figure 2 is a noteworthy example. More recent developments have taken a number of directions, many of which have been heavily promoted by interested parties but have not yet found acceptance. It is not possible to consider all of these in detail in the brief review made below.
Oxen: Powering Sustainable Agriculture In Developing Countries
The shoulder (neck or withers) yoke is one of the earliest harness types and is still the most
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