Padded Collars versus Yokes

As i said in another thread, i just made a set of collars for our water buffalo team. They were trained in a yoke, and it was time to carve another, but I had read the arguments and they made sense to me. The buffalo seem very comfortable in the collars, we’ll see how they do on some real weight when they get old enough in a year.

I would not hesitate to go back to a well made New England style yoke and compare at that point, in fact, we’ll probably use both and compare. IThe yoke is certainly a much simpler system. I guess it makes sense to say if your yoke is causing soreness, calluses, or other issues, you need to experiment with collars, or at the very least a more carefully made yoke. If not, no problem, perhaps.

“Dr. Ox” – Drew Conroy – also points out that one of the reasons the collars aren’t much tried here is traditional prejudice. I hope those examining the merits of both systems will be able to recognize their own prejudices, and put them aside.

If you let a bovine decide what to push with it will always be the forehead.
Maybe they are smarter than we give them credit for.

We made the hames of our collar system heavier than the ones i’ve seen in pictures – deeper front to back. We don’t use 3 pads, we use doubled-up horse collars over the necks and the collars clamped over the middle of these. We have had them dragging several hundred pounds for maybe a total of a kilometer, with rests. I would say that with the hames tight, it definately does not press the shoulders together.

I have yet to see a picture of a team of oxen in a collar system pulling anything other than a wagon, which seems to me pretty light work. On the other hand, neither do i think it would be a fair evaluation to pit collars vs yokes in a pulling competition. Maybe they can pull more in yoke, but if they only have to pull a few feet it doesn’t tell you much. Maybe in a real work situation, even if the collar system allows for less power (contrary to what i’ve read, but let’s assume this for argument), they might still be more comfortable and less likely to produce sores, calluses, whatever. Don’t know yet – just some thoughts.

hi!

a little late to get into conv. now, but i’d like to add that old oxen working in bow yoke have that distinct low head position, cause they learned to work (many hours) in a position that pushes the neck down, cause the yoke does, when it tucks into shoulders.
so, if they push back up, they must be spending a lot of energy over the years, energy that could be spent on actual pulling of implements.

the only real drawback of the collar i see, is that one can’t hitch and fix a pole to a pair of oxen working, say, on logging, so no logging arch, unless one improvises with a padded whiters yoke, but still…

gulo, do you have any pictures of your collars? i’d like to see how the collar is fixed do it don’t slip back or front. do you use some system to fix it into place?

This is a great discussion; thank you all. The bottom line I suppose is: does it work for what you want to do with your oxen and can you make it with the skills, materials, and tools you have?

Adding to the discussion:

Howie makes a good point about the collar vs. yoke in competition, and I was there and witnessed it (if that was Timber and Jack which were limmy holstein crosses I believe.)

I witnessed poorly designed yokes in Uganda and helped introduce better-designed dropped hitch bow yokes there, and explain the dynamics of it and why you can get more work from the animals with attention to design, fit, and line of draft. Yes, the FAO study was probably collars vs. beam-and-skein yokes.

About heads down, I don’t think that is always the case with the best competetive bow-yoked oxen. Improper angle of draft, not necessarily the yoke style, can pull heads down. Getting the angle of draft just right is something I am always trying to learn and improve.

I’ve been led to believe that the slight lifting that occurs with yoked oxen, either bow or headyoke, is not wasted energy at all, but is actually advantageous in starting heavy dragged loads, which historically is a major task for oxen in North America. Where oxen were used primarily for wheeled work, other harness systems might be “better.”

I know Howie uses a staple which allows for the ring to attach either more forward or backward on the yoke beam, thus affecting line of draft and the amount of “crank” on the bow yoke. Other mechanisms are used too to adjust draft angle with various yoking designs, like the curved piece of wood used with headyokes, the name of the piece I can’t recall.

I am curious about how one adjusts line of draft with the collar, and how you hitch to the load with it.

Yes, I am prejudicial toward the bow yoke for myself because that is the tradition of my region and my ancestors. It is tried-and-true for what we do here today with the kinds of cattle we have. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best everywhere for everyone, or that I’d never try something else.

Tillers works to scientifically and experiencially study these things and improve animal traction systems. Their veretical evener is one innovation. There’s more to it all than just style of harnessing.

Any time an ox pushes by his own intuitive he will push with his head. This should tell you something.:)

@Howie 11406 wrote:

Any time an ox pushes by his own intuitive he will push with his head. This should tell you something.:)

examples from all around the world show cattle being worked with head yokes successfully.
pushing with the head is their natural way of deploying force, but how much this system (designed for relatively short duels) is really efficient in working conditions imposed by humans is another matter.

even if we consider other means of capturing power from the forehead, like the german forehead yokes, there stay long hours of balancing their power to the forehead and, constantly moving the point of push.

so, their natural tendencies may not provide the best (even if sufficient) solution to an unnatural behavior we demand of them.

also, the comfort point is important. they can pick a harnessing system after what fancies them in a given situation, like long working hours, even if it wasn’t their natural tendency to transmit their power that way.