[bivol]

yep!;)

i wonder how they tought him that…
i’d love to get one of those indian running oxen, they’re turbo!
i hear they are nervous, but it’s the same with hot-blooded horses.
only they probably don’t need grain.

[bivol]

hi!

recently i’ve found some good vids on youtube, so i would like to share them with you all!

a little off record start
first is a video of a horse plowing in china. it is a little, stout horse pulling a traditional homemade mouldboard plow.
traditional chinese plows really are something! although the soil is heavy, and only a single small horse is pulling, you can clearly see soil cut like butter and almost bursting out of furrow! the horse DOES look overloaded but it’s going, and it also shows how much power a single small horse can have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ek-FWVgAGA

the main event
second video is a brazilian single ox cart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-N3d0Slusk

this one shows an ox wagon in south america. this is unique cause the wagon is likely a german design, and the neck yoke of portugese design, as opposed by the spanish traditions of two wheeled carts and head yoke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFh8QzxbuTg&feature=related

also brazil. this one shows a smart ox. this ox knows how to harness himself to a cart!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gEvEMXeWbo

animal 4X4 at its best!
the ox wagon competition in cross-country abillity! it is well known that oxen have a good tractiojn on muddy roads, but for all who (like me) haven’t seen them in action yet,this is an educational as well as entertaining vid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYr7wME08ZA&feature=fvw

this is a funny video of a clumsy guy who has a run down horse cart, and it is pimped up by lightning (i think by the hand of God), like people in US pimp cars! A PIMPED HORSE CART!:eek::D:cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxEbXOOQhFw

my kind of beach buggy!
has everything one needs: a nice view, shade, music, AND eko-power!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEl4CbEdAq8&feature=related

india
anyone who thinks cattle are restricted to plodding oxen, i hope this vid will change her/his mind.

this one shows an indian bullock cart with a single ox trotting at admirable speed on a hot day! i’d prefer this ox to any horse for road work!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugi1mTSaBWg&feature=related
india has a lot to offer to world in section of road work oxen.
this shows that cattle are, with selection, capable of being as fast as horses, and, i presume, being tougher.

and here is a turbo ox! i don’t know how fast a single horse cart goes, but i think this ox goes like a ferrari!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgJ0lb4nqs0&feature=related

well, that’s it for now! i hope you enjoyed!

[bivol]

if steers are brought up together, they bond more, and it’s ofcourse harder for them to accept change of partner. but that’s why it’s recommended to teach oxen to work as singles and then teach them to work as a team.

in the past, the rule was “use what you’ve got”. if you have a cow and a horse, you’d use that, and see that it worked.
so, yes, oxen can be worked with other animals, especially if wearing harness, but you must adjust your training to make these two animals

I can see that being the case with animals brought up and always worked together, but what about singles who have particular attachment to a teammate?

my guess is that, although the oxen share an obvious affection to each other, they already know to work on their own, so pairing with other oxen shouldn’t be a problem. just consider that oxen, as well as people, just can’t “stomack” some other oxen, they have mutual antagonism. there is no rule to that, you just have to observe their reactions. but i guess it could be due to their characters being fundamentally different…:confused: matching for temperament is very important. search the new ox to fit the temper of your ox.
try to get an animal of similar hight.
you use the harness so adjusting the strenght shouldn’t be a problem, but their speed should be similar.

see that they’re matched in temperament and size, and it should well work.

[bivol]

@CharlyBonifaz 11305 wrote:

well….. about 5 dollars on ebay…… anyone of them…….:cool:

😮 are they in working order?

well, the vollkummt looks prettier cause it has that bigger touching surface which is (supp. to be) more comfortable.

my guess about the forehead yoke is, that, for lighter loads it’s not bad for stomack metabolism. i guess, cause i know how the oxen “crouch” (head down, back bent up, muscles on ribs) when they’re pulling in head yoke, AND neck yoke, if less. from the little footage i saw (thanks for uploading:)) the steer didn’t look like he “crouched”. but that’s why i’d like to see more footage. but i’ll see it, if nothing next summer, if i don’t come to some gathering before kommern…

[bivol]

i thought you didn’t prod them along with force, horses don’t need that.

that with the tire in the furrow, i haven’t thought of that, good to know. ofcourse trickier if one trains a single horse, but it works OK for two…

thanks!:)

[bivol]

niiice!

are they more comfortable than 3-pad harnesses?
they are sure more complicated to make, and i imagine more expensive, too…

do you know some footage, films or clips of oxen working in forehead yoke?
i’d like to study it a little more.

[bivol]

i think the harnesses on the picture are called full harness (vollkumt), and are not 3-pad harnesses. i’m curious how they are made …

can someone tell me why the plowman uses that leather apron? i’ve never seen plowmen using that kind of aprons for plowing, except in germany.

[bivol]

the method with forecart is good! it simplifies breaking to plow if they are already (fore)cart broken.

so i guess it could also work with a cart instead of forecart?

did you hitch a load to the forecart to accustom her to pulling while in furrow?

about those percherons, when you prodded them, didn’t they want to bolt and jump out of furrow? figured that they likely would, but seems they were tame…

which reminds me, an animal bolts in most cases (80%) when pushed too hard, doesn’t understand what its driver wants, or simply (it or the driver) has a bad day. other 20% are character, i guess…

[bivol]

@CharlyBonifaz 11278 wrote:

can’t say if you don’t let me in on the video 😀
thanks for trying to catch on the Bulgarian lead

hi elke!

here’s the link!
http://www.myvideo.de/watch/5850122/Mit_Stirnjoch_Holz_ziehen

i saw CharlyBonifaz on one of the other vids so i fugured… good videos btw.

that’s it for now, i got to go, so i’ll come by later.

bye!

[bivol]

@CharlyBonifaz 11273 wrote:

@Anne
run it all around the animal and hook it to the ring on the pole (you can still run the circle through the neckband).
I do like the sturdy look of that britchen on the right! been thinking of making a broad one from a horses breastcollar…..

@Bivol
do you speak any Bulgarian? The university from Sofia keeps up its forest holding in Jundola, were they work with oxen. The type of forest and terrain make them superior to horses. About 10 years ago they must have worked 16 oxenteams. I#d love to search the net for them……
elke

hi Elke!

i had no idea they used oxen, let alone study their use in a university! i thought they, as a part of soviet block, had an almost fanatical dedication to machinery… or so i thought looking at socialism and mechanization…
worth googling for sure!:cool:

i don’t speak bulgarian, and it’s even more trouble looking in bulgarian cause they write cyrillic instead of latin, and i don’t know to read cyrillic very well… not to mention having no clue of the language!
bit i’ll try to look it up with dictionaries.

Fabian, glad you enjoyed it!

i forgot to mention all languages.

so other would be:

Turkey:

Öküz kagni (ox wagon) – note the primitive yoke and cart design. this cart design is very similar to some spanish and portugese designs. i think they are all remainder of ancient cart designs found around the mediterranean, but who survived in most remote regions.

Hungary:

Ökrös szekér (oxen wagon)

Szántás ökörrel (plowing)

on flickr, type bull cart moldova.

i saw a video clip of a steer working in a forehead yoke (Elke was that you?), and it struck me how easy the animal moved compared to the head yoke. i red the head yoke is bad for stomack metabolism, and the 3-pad harness is not. but what about the forehead yoke?

[bivol]

@Howie 11240 wrote:

Oxen are more manueverable. They have less equipment to get in the way and if things get in their way they will slow down and feel their way.

lol in my country the mountin loggers always thought oxen were “stiff”, but i guess that was cause they used horrible yoke designs, and the animals were uncomfortable to say the least…

i agree with Howie!

[bivol]

@Howie 11240 wrote:

Oxen are more manueverable. They have less equipment to get in the way and if things get in their way they will slow down and feel their way.

lol in my country the mountain loggers always thought oxen were “stiff”, but i guess that was cause they used horrible yoke design like whitters yoke, and the animals were uncomfortable to say the least…

[bivol]

@Ixy 11237 wrote:

Thanks for the keywords bivol! There’s pages and pages of pictures! Oxen must be/have been more popular in germany than england as in english there aren’t so many?

Are there many ox books in deutsch? Ich lernen deutsch auf dem schule fur funf jahre, aber ich bin nicht so gut! 😮 If only I was better!

I notice most of the oxen wearing collars rather than yokes, too. And I found my dream – a picture of three working abreast! It’s my ambition to work a welsh black, ruby red devon and white park abreast 😀

No problem, glad you like them!

bovines, mostly cows, were very popular in germany up until the 60s, when the mechanization was complete.
i red somewhere that the working cow population in the 30s numbered somewhere around 2.5 million. without oxen.
cows were the prefered, and often only, power source available to smallholders.
they gave milk, calf, and work… and on top of that, a little, but (in my country) much appreciated fact: cows weren’t mobilized in case of war, and horses were. so in case of war, a smallholder still had the means to work on his farm.
when you make that three-colour abreast, do post it! it could be used as a commercial, too! 😉

books… hm, there is the manual for making the 3-pad ox harness, (autor dr. Rolf Minhorst) and it deals with working oxen and various things like comparing efficiency between head yokes and harness, working cattle history, shoeing, history of yoke types, and of course, making a 3-pad harness. this manual covers all the essential stuff one needs to know if one is an “extension officer, eko-farmer, or hobby ox driver”.
elke, good thing you posted the “kuhanspanung in deutschland”, i’m ordering it right away!

to all interested, you can try googling:

German

ochsengespann pflügen (oxen team plowing)

ochsenkarren (oxen cart)

ochsenwagen (oxen wagon)

ochsen pflügen (oxen plowing)

kuh pflügen (plowing cow)

Italian

buoi aratro (oxen plow)

Romanian

car cu boi (cart pulled by oxen)

boi carul (oxen cart)

car cu bivoli (buffalo cart- yes, Romanians have water buffaloes)

Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian

volovi

[bivol]

@Vicki 11203 wrote:

bivol, these photos are so fantastic! Thanks.

😀 no problem!
these are from Germany, if you want more, just google “ochsengesapann” (ox-team), or “kuhgespann” (cow team), and click on pictures!

[bivol]

hi!

well, you’ll have to focus on books about training oxen in particular.

oxen can have light coloured hooves (simmental, holstein) or dark hooves (jersey, devon, brown swiss). darker hooves are stronger than light hooves, and wear down slower.

the question about ox shoes is related to where you work oxen. if worked regulary on paved roads, rocky ground, and hard surfaces oxen need shoes. if they’re pulling on dirt roads, soil, grass, and such, they tend not to need shoes, esp. if they have dark hooves. oxen need shoeing every six weeks or so, but it’s hard to find someone who’s willing to do it. shoeing oxen is a different procedure from sh. horses.

dark hooves are always desired.

honestly, i don’t know why you want to de-horn them…:confused:
oxen can be worked without horns in harness or bow yoke, but they need britchen when they want to stop the wagon.

[Author]

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