Farmer going back to horse and plough

[JavaScriptDonkey]

I've never really considered before why we have historically used horses instead of cows.

There has been research by the International Livestock Research Institute into using cows for ploughing. They probably did a little more than watch a history series on the telly.

Their conclusions were that for the Ethiopian farmers concerned it worked well enough so long as the the cows were cross bred for the purpose; they were fed supplements and the farms were small.

It's one of those situations where you could do it but no one does because there are better ways of skinning that cat.

You could have just one pair of shoes for all occasions but you don't. We reap the benefits of specialisation and accept the downsides.

[UndercoverElephant]

I've never really considered before why we have historically used horses instead of cows.

There has been research by the International Livestock Research Institute into using cows for ploughing. They probably did a little more than watch a history series on the telly.

Their conclusions were that for the Ethiopian farmers concerned it worked well enough so long as the the cows were cross bred for the purpose; they were fed supplements and the farms were small.

Thanks for digging that up.

It's one of those situations where you could do it but no one does because there are better ways of skinning that cat.

You could have just one pair of shoes for all occasions but you don't. We reap the benefits of specialisation and accept the downsides.

That's what we do in the fully-industrialised, cheap-oil-dependent modern world, yes. Whether or not that's what we will continue to do in the medium-term future is far from certain.

[vtsnowedin]

I've never really considered before why we have historically used horses instead of cows.

There has been research by the International Livestock Research Institute into using cows for ploughing. They probably did a little more than watch a history series on the telly.

Their conclusions were that for the Ethiopian farmers concerned it worked well enough so long as the the cows were cross bred for the purpose; they were fed supplements and the farms were small.

It's one of those situations where you could do it but no one does because there are better ways of skinning that cat.

You could have just one pair of shoes for all occasions but you don't. We reap the benefits of specialisation and accept the downsides.

Africa may be a special case as the tsetse fly carries a disease that is fatal to horses. I don't know if Ethiopia is in that flies range or not.
After the invention of the horse collar in the latter part of the middle ages I think horses have had the clear advantage over oxen anyplace where they both can live. The colonist in the Americas used both however as the numbers of horses were often in short supply and an ox yoke is much easier to make then a set of horse harness.