field work with oxen in permanent bed system on slanting land

That IS a doozy.
How steep is sloping? How wide are the path’s/beds

Some issues to think about:
1.) If you are keeping animals on the farm, the steepest open land should be pasture. So that may remove some of the issue.
2.) Usually to me, permanent beds means controlled traffic (don’t walk or drive on the beds). Depending on the width of the beds and paths, then it could be really difficult to have oxen pull equipment over beds without they themselves walking in the beds. There would be ways, but I wouldn’t recommend them.

3.) If the areas that the animals work are very clearly delineated, (i.e. grass vs bare dirt) the animals should, over time become easier to drive as they know where they need to be.
4.) I don’t think cultivating would be super difficult (unless its very steep), since you’d probably want to do it with 2 people anyway. You’d want a riding cultivator and/or a walkbehind cultivator. If you like to tinker, antiques of both can be found lying around for cheap, and a couple manufacturers make new ones.

Good luck.

I’ve been thinking about this one as well. I am thinking that some of the smaller Promata or Annies-all-in-one type equipment that can be pulled off center behind a single animal might be appropriate in these situations. The ox walks the path and the tool works off to the side in the permanent bed. Just an idea not being able to see the situations and really size it up. You might not be able to do the primary tillage at first but some secondary and cultivation work could be done this way. I would also tell them that training oxen has to be your passion to make it work. I think it is possible but they have to really want to work with the animals to make a go at it.

Hey Daniel,

Reading your post makes me think of the agricultural landscape in the Andean mountains. There oxen are used for plowing, harrowing & hilling on slopes. These are slopes where a tractor doesn´t enter. Added are two pictures of Ecuador. One of a field being harrowed and plowed. The other shows a field that was just plowed by oxen.

People in South America asked me about using animal traction machinery like the European tool carrier there. My thought on that is if its really steep field, I would use a walk behind cultivator.
The farm in Ecuador, to whom I delivered and integrated a European tool carrier, has a slope of 15%. The same as the tractor, the Kockerling tool carrier works fine there on such a slope. They use one horse for the machine, in broccoli and leeks.
A team in front of such a tool carrier is possible too. With the permanent grass-paths bed system the animals could walk the paths

Cultivators with a ridge or crest on the wheels would have an advantage on a slope.
The steel wheels of for example the I&J riding cultivator have a ridge/crest. This gives the machine more stabilty from sideward pressure. Comparable to the wheels of a ground driven mower, but with a bigger crest.

Working off-set.
When working off-set, the further or/and deeper that goes, the bigger sideward pressure on the machine/draftanimal will be. The soil type also has and effect on this.
Such work would put uneven pressure on the draft animal. If that´s high and for hours, it might not be pleasant. I think its like pushing a wheelbarrow in front of you, but offset. A bit off-set and for a short while with a light load that´s ok. Changing sides would help too.

This sideward pressure depends also on the type of machine being used. Like a walk behind cultivator with a setup like the hitching piont on a walk behind plow (Like Kevin mentioned).
For a tool carrier it would be different when a single horse is put off-set. Interesting would be to solve the sideward pressure on the machine so the animal walks “free”.

Stabilizer bars.
What the stabilizer bars on the tractor concerns, using the tiller is heavy work. When these bars are not set, a machine seeks its “own path”. Especially a rotating tiller. Even on flat land, when seeding for example, I would set these bars tight enough so that the seeder follows the tractor directly. Without “wandering off”.

Would this side pressure be experienced with the draft animals too?
Not as much as with tiller behind the tractor. The (percentage of the) slope does influence this.
When working with an off-sett “walk behind cultivator” it could be forced to work uphill by the created side draft. Letting the animal walk next to the crop and setting the line of draft in such way, that it will follow the machine straight. In this way it will be compensating from following the land slope. When set very off-set, the rear part of the cultivator turn downwards.

It depends on the percentage of the slope and when needed on the off-set adjustment on the machinery. Too much off-set would make the rear of walk behind cultivator turn.

What you mention with a team and a neck yoke makes sense to me. That is seen a lot in the Andean oxen culture.