Oxen question

Rod as I am a new teamster my self I have been through what you are going through. When I would work my animals and would walk by the gate to get into the barnyard they would always want to go in and I would have to fight them to walk by. So what I did was walk them up to the gate and make them stand there for a while then back them up and go for a little walk come back and do the same thing over again till they get the hint.
My off steer Frank when we walk does the same thing when it comes to wandering, he tries always to eat something growing on the side of the road and it drives me absolutely nuts. The only thing I try to do is stay on him with my goad stick.
When he horns you as mine do time to time I just smack them in the nose and if that don’t work get a bigger stick until he listens and learns not to be mean.

Even though we call them a team, it is still two individual animals, and you. You have to drive each animal. When you move quickly to the yoke, because this is what you see everyone doing, sometimes one steer, often the off one, will begin to get independent. Trying to remedy the situation while yoked as a team can lead to frustration. Go back to basics and work on instilling the behavior you want. There is nothing wrong with working on the basics, it is what will guide success later on. Carl

Rod,

I’ve had similar experiences with my off steers. They seem to always be quick to mess around. I think your relationship with the off ox is a different one than what you share with the nigh. What has worked for me is working the off steer single. It would be great if you had a single yoke to really work him. However, I’ve always just used a halter and a goad to take my off steer on excursions. This will deepen the relationship between you two. In a sense, you will make him into a nigh steer if you spend enough time with him.

I did have a steer who was a real SOB. I ended up beefing him. Behaviorally he was challenging, agressive, and too fast for my nigh steer. He also didn’t have good conformation and would loose his wind easily. These traits put him in the freezer. However, if you have a well built animal that is mated and matched to your nigh steer, I would try my best to work out the kinks with him. Chances are you would end up with the same traits in a new team, and possibly to a greater degree!

I’ve found that all teams have a quiet, even tempered steer and one that’s more challenging. We like to fantasize about how wonderful our team would be if we could just make a carbon copy of the “good” one and turn the “bad” one into beef patties. However, if you can make your challenging steer into a good, well behaved worker, your skills as a trainer will deepen immensely.

I say create a plan for going over the basics with your off steer. Set some goals for his training and commit to a training schedule for him. I think you’ll find that he’ll come around if you give him some one-on-one work that reinforces the basic principles of training. Really work on building a solid relationship with him Then you’ll have a great team that you made yourself and the skills to work with challenging calves and steers.