Which has lower overhead: an ATV or a horse?

[JonBailey64]

This video clip shows a Point Reyes, California dairy hand driving the milk cows home with a 4-wheeler and not a horse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU4-UrEWV2k

These cowboys in Montana still prefer to drive their beef cows with horses, the old-fashioned way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzYIPKR__5g

[buckfarmer]

ATV has much lower overhead cost and are way more usefull. However horses can be used to cut cattle. Horses ore more manuverable. Sorry I didn't watch the videos, can't open them for some reason. From what you said you are compairing apples and oranges. Dairy cattle vs beef cows. Two very different animals.

[Husker-J]

Yup, what Buck said.

Atvs don't need to eat, when you are not using them, they can haul salt & mineral on the racks, etc, etc.

However, for cutting cattle, particuarly in rugged terrain, it is horse all the way.

Ditto roping.   Watch someone try to rope even a baby calf off an ATV, and you can see why there is still a place for a horse.

[buckfarmer]

Only thing I ever tried to rope from a ATV was a deer. Then last year someone posted a supposed true story about doing it on foot. It may still be on the ag-laugh forum. Let's just say I'm glad I can't rope.

[buckfarmer]

Yeah! do a search of deer on this site. Check the post by Dial3. That could have been me if I was any good with a rope.

[JonBailey64 · Accepted solution]

What did milk cow farmers use before the advent of the ATV?

A good herding or heeler dog to bring them home?

I suppose a good German shepherd could manage milk cows too. 

[buckfarmer]

The dairy cows I was around when I was younger didn't need brought in. They did it themselves. I suppose that's more like what you've seen in those story books. I did have a red heeler she was awesome for moving beef cows between pastures. she wa a little high strung though. 13 cats pre red 0 within a month, coons DOA to our yard, birds killed in mid flight up to six feet off the ground, Drain tile dug up, neighbors chickens gone, wild turkeys and Canadian Geese dead every where. Yea that was a good dog.
Funny how a guy that has so little to contribute has provided some good fodder for the rest of us.