[Baystatetom]

My daughters team of jersey steers would eat the poison ivy first. Of course then they would lick you with that rough cow tongue and grind it right into your skin.
I think I would try a mixed herd, maybe sheep, goats and a steer or two. I hear that electric netting type fence keeps coyotes and dogs at bay pretty well.

[Baystatetom]

Right on Pirate. I can’t say I am a huge fan of chemicals myself, but I have sprayed a few properties that most people would have written off as too far gone, and got them back in three years, also our crew of three can cover a huge acreage in a day. We use backpack mist blowers with the minimum amount of herbicide and put it just where we need it. I also know I make better money spraying then I do marking timber these days. If you are that busy raise your rates! Just kidding make a honest days pay for a honest days work, don’t ask for less or more.
Glad to hear others are into it! I just may start picking up a herd of weed eaters myself. Being a forester I know about whats going on in the understory of my oak/pine forest and don’t know much about open stuff. Although I have done a few knappweed jobs. Pretty tough to pick that stuff out from everything else when you are being selective with herbicides.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

As a professional forester I don’t really like the idea of having animals grazing in the forest. However I do believe in using land. If the decision was made that, that land was now pasture, then in my eyes that’s a viable land use decision made by the property owner. It probably won’t coincide with good silviculture but at that point silviculture is not the objective. I would think planting desirable trees in or around your pasture land would be the way to go rather then fencing forest land. I have one pasture with several honey locust in it. I hate those things and would have cut them along time ago but the giant thorns have kept me at bay. My oxen however love the seed pods. I even let a neighbor dump some in my pasture he raked off his lawn. Of course I am running the risk of seeding them all over in the manure.

[Baystatetom]

Could be sassafras but the bark is usually more brown, the bigger trees only have one type of spear shaped leaves, they kind of lose the mitten ones as they get bigger. Sassafras also has simple leaves. Locust will have compound leaves and is in the legume family so it will produce big pea pod like fruit. My bulls love those giant pea pods. Honey locust has huge thorns top to bottom even on the trunk, black locust only has thorns on the smaller branches.
I used to go out and find a shrub or plant I didn’t know and try to figure it out for fun. Its good stuff. Although on the list of things I did before I had kids.

[Baystatetom]

Being a thrifty New England Yankee I hate to spend money and/or waist something good, I often find myself using whatever I have even though everybody tells me get a better one. That being said I think you can find a much better plow to start off with. I drug one out of the woods that had been there for fifty years and it looks better then yours. or at least you could make a good one out of the two. I’ll give it to you on a long term loan if you want to come to Massachusetts and get it.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

I got a team of jerseys for my kids a few years ago for two reasons, one I got them for free, secondly they are wicked cute calves (very important for little girls). I heard all kinds of bad things about jerseys but I have to say they were hands down the smartest, fastest to learn team I ever had. It took no time at all to have them working like robots. I swear I could have taught them to do back flips in a week. They pulled hard too, but in the end I decided that I would not keep them long term because I just wasn’t convinced they would be strong enough to pull large logs. Firewood defiantly yes.
I have another team I am planning on using for logging, following the low impact idea. I am a consulting forester and clients ask me about draft animal logging all the time. However I am thinking of using them with a tractor. Essentially I want to use the oxen like a winch. They can bring the trees from the stump to wherever I can easily grab it with a tractor.
Tim gave a pretty good answer about feed. I am not that scientific but I can say my spring born jerseys ate 120 bales in there first winter, and my blue roans the same age must have been north of 150.

[Baystatetom]

Looks like its in the birch family. Black birch has a strong wintergreen scent and flavor. Yellow birch a slighter scent and flavor. White birch or gray birch have no wintergreen scent at all.
when saplings Cherry is often mistaken for birch that has a unpleasant scent and flavor. Use all your senses. As far as firewood, if it burns use it. Worse case it burns fast and you need more of it but then it will likely be a hot fire and burn cleaner.
~Tom

[Baystatetom]

As a “want to be” ox logger I am glad I saw your video. You may have saved me and my team a lot of frustration by sharing. Thanks

[Baystatetom]

Being a diehard ox man I am using my team to pull some heavy stones into the backyard for a retaining wall. But I am using the Egyptian technique of rolling the stones up a ramp on pipes. You can easily move a lot of weight that way.
My friends keep stopping by to see how it is going and so far everybody has asked “why don’t you just use the bucket on your tractor”
They will never get it!

[Baystatetom]

I have been looking at those logrite arches in catalogs and wondered if they could be modified to use with oxen. I was thinking more of just a pole then a forcart interesting to see that picture though. I’ll have to keep on my wish list.

[Baystatetom]

A little bluegrass in my ear keeps me going at a good pace with the chainsaw. Maybe it would work for lazy oxen too. Although I must say I spend a lot more time trying to slow mine down then speed them up. I know they get slower with age. Give it a try and let us know if it works.
Tom

[Baystatetom]

I have used it before while cutting on watershed land. I don’t think it is as good as real oil, the bar defiantly heats up a bit more. And it cost more. Does not smell like french fries but does have a burnt food like odor.

[Baystatetom]

Second try went substantially better. Tried some lighter soil and moved the wheel down a notch. Still plenty of room for improvement but at least I could see we were gaining ground. I was surprised at the amount of ground we covered in just 2 hours. For a young team I am very pleased with how hard they pull.

[Baystatetom]

I have few pictures but I don’t think I need to show them to anybody here:D

[Baystatetom]

I think most of the trouble was that this was the first time they had seen any green grass since November and I just had a hard time making them pay attention. Pulling the plow was also pretty close to their maximum payload so the stronger off steer kept coming around to the haw side and my near steer wasn’t able to pull ahead to push him back to the gee side unless I stopped them and straightened them out. I had plowed a few times when I was a kid and had 4H steers but this was my first try in about 20 years. Pretty much did the same quality of work. I brought my plow and steers over to a friends farm and had him hold the plow while I drove. I think I may plow and harrow with the tractor then re-plow the softer ground with the steers for practice. I am sure as the team gets bigger and we practice more we will all get better. I intended them to be loggers, the plowing was just for amusement.

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