Draft Animal Power Podcast
The DAPCast from the Draft Animal Power Network investigates the intersection between sustainable land use and working animals. Hard to pigeonhole, our podcast will inspire you to create the change you want to see both in the world and in your animals. It will provoke your thoughts on sustainability, and also give you practical tips for getting big heavy animals to do what you want them to do. If you've ever had a twinge of curiosity about draft animals, or even if you're just interested in sustainable agriculture and silviculture/agroforestry, the DAPCast is worth a listen. Maggie Smith hosts Season 1 with editing by Louis Ménard and Alexia Allen and music by Pier-Rick Boivin.
The Draft Animal Power Network is a membership-based nonprofit organization nonprofit organization that aims to highlight ongoing efforts of people who are educating, mentoring, and building community around animal-power and sustainable land use. We are based in the Northeastern U.S. but are growing all over the country and internationally. We host an annual flagship event, Draft Animal Power Field Days, as well as many other small in-person events and virtual discussions. Find us online at www.draftanimalpower.org.
Draft Animal Power Podcast
Field Days 2023 Retrospective
We’ve got a slightly different type of episode this time around. Since registration is about to open for Draft Animal Power Field Days 2024, the podcast crew looked back at audio gathered at Field Days 2023 at Shelburne Farms, VT and created an audio collage of sorts. In a corner room of Shelburne Farms’ incredible Breeding Barn, I interviewed Jared Woodcock, Eric Westergard and Rick Eshuis. The indefatigable Caralyn Roeper did our guest introduction. Bear with us on the audio quality; there is some human and animal background noise going on from the event outside.
Jared Woodcock is, in his own words, a father, farmer, forester, and ecologist. Among many other things, he manages private woodlots with horses under the moniker Timberdoodle Horse Logging. Eric Westergard is an ox drover, logger and carpenter in West Virginia and a perennial feature at Field Days despite the distance to his home turf. And Rick Eshuis manages the farm at Tillers' International in Scotts, Michigan. He is a longtime horse teamster who volunteered with Tillers' for many years before becoming an employee, and his passion for the work can be heard loud and clear in our interview.
*2024 Draft Animal Power Field Days has been moved to the Orange County Farmers Museum in Montgomery, NY. The dates are still September 27th-29th and the itinerary is not expected to change much!*
Friday features day-long intensive workshops focusing on forestry, fieldwork, mowers, and horse and oxen basics. Saturday is a mix of shorter workshops on all types of topics and features a benefit auction, and Sunday has a mix of family-friendly programs and the DAPNet’s annual member meeting. You can learn how to register to attend the event (or sponsor, exhibit or volunteer at it) at draftanimalpower.org.
Editing for this episode was provided by the stalwart Louis Menard and fabulous Alexia Allen.