Elkton Farms

06/16/2026

Where are my DRAFT HORSE focused business owners?!

I want to hear from you!

We are putting together the officially “Horse Powered Homestead” resource directory and we’d love to include your business as a resource for others.

We’re looking for:

- Draft horse breeders
- Local feed shops
- Farriers
- People specializing in restoring horse drawn equipment

And really anything else that might benefit someone getting started with horse farming!

Sound like you or someone you know? Drop your business page in the comments below.

06/04/2026

WHY we farm with horses:

- Better for the land. Horses don’t leak motor oil or other fluids. They don’t compact the ground as intensely as heavy machinery. Plus their 💩 ADDS to the soil quality, instead of depleting from it.

- We don’t like the idea of being reliant on systems like fuel supply being intact and affordable. Our ultimate goal is to completely vertically integrate our farm and grow everything we need to sustain our animals here at home.

- Horse don’t struggle to start up when it’s cold outside or get stuck when it’s muddy.

- It’s an ancestral skill at risk of being lost if someone doesn’t step up to try and preserve it. When the “old ways” of doing things are forgotten, society is rarely better off.

- We enjoy it! We like working horses. We enjoy connecting with the animals and spending time together working horses as a family.

Are you on your own draft horse powered journey?! Tell us about it!

06/04/2026

Our version of rebellious:

Have ALL the babies and grow ALL the food.

And just because we enjoy a little extra dose of crazy, why not do it all with draft horses instead of tractors as our primary power source. 🤷‍♀️😂

Where are our fellow “threats to society” at? 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

05/26/2026

I need milk cow ADVICE!!

Eloise is a first time heifer and we have been waiting for her calf to show up for WEEKS!

Based on how she looks today, what are we thinking? (Please tell me it’s soon.)

Also - if you have any tips for managing our first family milk cow, I’d love to hear them! What do you wish you would’ve known before getting started?

12/06/2025

One of the biggest blessings of homesteading life, is the ability to do and share so much with our kids.

This little cowboy loves helping his Daddy with our draft horses. He’s never far behind when there’s farm work to be done.

Other homesteading jobs our kids like to help with:

- Horse care
- Feeding and watering animals
- Rotating the sheep
- Collecting chicken eggs
- Baking bread
- Making sausage

Sure, there are some jobs on the homestead that just aren’t kid friendly. But for the most part, we’ve been able to adapt tasks and establish safety boundaries and expectations that allow our children to participate in as much of the homestead life as they want to.

12/04/2025

Not bad for our first time HORSE PLOWING

It may not be the prettiest plow job in the world - but this draft horse and I got the job done.

We are attempting to use draft horses to plant spelt to feed the horses and cows this spring.

If this works, we’ll try sweet corn, sunflowers, radishes, and pumpkins next. Each of these crops contain different vital nutrients that the animals on our homestead need to grow and thrive.

(Part of our goal to raise our animals on truly organic, grown at home feed.)

🔔 FOLLOW to learn more about life on a horse powered homestead!

11/08/2025

Is it possible to PLANT and GROW all of the feed we need to sustain our livestock throughout the year?! We are going to find out!

On our homestead, we currently have:
- 3 draft horses
- Pastured pigs
- Pastured chickens (egg laying and meat birds)
- A family milk cow and calf
- 20 sheep & goats

All of these animals required feed -- which as any homesteader or small farmer knows, can be quite expensive. That's why we've decided to put our horses to work on a new experiment: planting and growing feed for the whole farm!

We've never done this before, but if it works, it'll be game-changing for our homestead budget. In this video, we are sharing more about WHY we've decided to grow our own feed, plus the particular crops we've chosen and where we've gotten the horse-drawn farm implements we need for planting.

Is it possible to PLANT and GROW all of the feed we need to sustain our livestock throughout the year?! We are going to find out! On our homestead, we curren...

11/04/2025

Throwback to last winter when our Belgian draft horse pulled TWO round bales of hay at the same time. 😳🤯

The raw and real of homesteading is this:

Your livestock still needs to eat through the cold winter months. Even when its cold and you’d rather be inside. 🥶

For us, this means having a steady supply of high quality hay to feed our horses, sheep, goats and family milk cow.

Since it’s way more cost effective to buy large round bales of hay (versus the smaller square bales) we rely on horse power to get these bales moved around the homestead. We couldn’t feed our other animals without the help of horses!

10/31/2025

3 Lessons we’ve learned using draft horses to power our homestead:

1. There’s no shortcuts. Take your time and do things the right way, or you’ll pay for it later.

2. The most challenging part of owning horses is paying to feed them. Looking for ways to optimize your feed bills (like plowing and planting grains or spelt) can go a long way to improving the homestead budget.

3. Working horses is a great way to involve the whole family in the homestead life. Even the smallest members of our family enjoy feeding, brushing, and caring for our horses. (Always with adult supervision.)

Considering adding work horses to your homestead? What questions do you have?

10/23/2025

Have you ever wondered how much time it takes to get a draft horse hitched and ready for work?! Surely it would take WAY longer than starting up a tractor...right?

On our horse powered homestead, we rely on horses to help with just about everything. From watering and feeding our other animals to logging firewood to heat our wood burning stove, hitching up horses is a daily activity for us. Find out EXACTLY how much time we spend getting our horses hitched and ready for farm chores in this video!

(Hint: it's less time than you'd think.)

Is draft horse farming actually efficient? How much time does it really take to hitch and harness a homestead draft horse? In this video, I will show you EXA...