[ivy]

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback! I’ve grown 1.25acres of Reids Yellow Dent the past two years, and we definitely share some with the wildlife.

Cheers!

[ivy]

Hi Main-yak,

Cool to know there are other yakkers out there!

I actually did get to talk to the folks at the VT Yak Company after all and got to see their yaks. They are just for meat, but the farmers didn’t see why one could not be milked by hand or machine.

Yaks don’t make too much milk – definitely production is similar to a goat. There are alot of papers on the internet out of Qinghai China that talk about yak milking improvement. This one shows some production amounts: http://www.case.edu/affil/tibet/documents/Milkingyakspaper.pdf
It looked at the yields from a number of different yaks (in other studies) whose daily production ranged from 2.25kg/day (about 1/2 a gallon) to just under 1kg (about a quart) a day. So they are not milk producing machines but I think Near Horse is right, if she’s relaxed and not getting sucked dry by her baby, you should be able to get some out of her.

Did you have any more luck?

-ivy

[ivy]

I too admire this cart! So much so that I am going to try and make one for my boy. But, inspite of this very detailed discussion, I’ve not seen many carts in action. So, I had some questions.

1) Where is it exactly that you hook the shafts? (I put my guess in the picture I am attaching). Do you secure them there with pins? The spots in the center are for a single tree or a fore cart sort of hookup?

2) Do you need to bend the shafts (and if so how) so they are at the right angle to hook to a yoke (instead of the built in yoke in the original design)? Is there ever any concern that the cart will try to flip up if not hooked to the yoke? If so would this put pressure on the steer’s neck?

Clearly, Rod, I should have checked this out closer when I came to get the yoke!

-ivy[IMG]

[ivy]

I’m 28. When I was 23 I went to work on a farm because I needed a job and found that I loved and was quite good with animals, but not so good with tractors. So what could be better than a cow that does the work of a tractor? 2 years ago I started my steer. I also now have a heifer who works with him. I hope before too long to use them to do all the work of the tractor for my 4 cows and 1/2 acre garden. 🙂

[ivy]

Awesome. Thanks Tim. An excellent combination of math and oxen, two of my favourite things. I will let you know how it works out.

Cheers
ivy

[ivy]

Hi Tim and Howie! Thanks for replying.

Lucky (steer) weighs about 775 pounds and Hershey (heifer) weighs maybe 550 pounds. Lucky also trains with heavier things while Hersh more goes out for fun right now, so I suspect he is stronger (at least for now) on more than a pound per pound basis.

[ivy]

I had been wondering about animal pairing lately as well. I have a Holstein steer who is 1 year old and trained single. All the while I have been training him, I have had a Jersey heifer almost 1 year old who is pretty interested in what was going on. So this summer, I started taking her out, single. She’s pretty eager to please and things have been going along well, even though I didn’t start her as young as my boy.

Lately, I’ve been clipping their halters together and making them go as a pair, heifer nigh and steer off. This sort of works okay, I think they just need more time.

But I wondered if there is any kind of yoking or harnessing system that accommodates for such a difference in size and strength? I have seen yokes that can use leverage (slide in or out a little) to balance the animals out, but they are rather different sizes now and the discrepancy will only get bigger.

This, of course, is not a huge dilemma for me, as I don’t need a pair, matched or otherwise. Yet, when people just had to pair what they had – horse or ox or whatever, what system did they use?

[ivy]

I think that if your cattle respect you and you are aware of them, their horns are not dangerous. You can also train the horns to curve into a less brutal position. There have been a few good threads about this on the board (I asked the same question when I started)

http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=209

http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=369

However, I dehorned my steer because he lives with dairy cows that have all been dehorned (not my decision). If one animal has horns and others do not, it is much easier for that one to be dominant. If he ever hurt one of the cows, he would be on the truck (to the auction). I think they look great with horns. But mine is a single so he uses a britchen anyway, and we have not had a problem (yet 🙂 )

I feel that horns or no horns are both fine for their own reasons. If you are showing however, there may be some preference for horns.

[ivy]

Paul, I like your specific plan outline. I printed it out and put it in my “steer” folder. Thank you all for the good advice and thanks for asking, Victoria, questions help everyone.

I wanted to say that my steer, (who is only 10 months old, so I’m sure my turn is coming) after follow Tim’s advice for learning “woah” now stops at my voice even going back to the barn. So I think it can be done.

ivy

[ivy]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, it is definitely true that he stops best going up hill with a load. 🙂

ivy

[ivy]

My calf also doesn’t always stop on command. He always stops with the stick. I, too, don’t know if he will eventually “get it.” Right now I spend time saying “woah” and giving him a second to respond before I use the stick. Some days he will stop at my voice but then the next day it will be as though I never stopped him with anything but the stick.

[ivy]

My calf is 9 months old and his 6 inch yoke is still a little bit big for him. So in my novice opinion, you want something smaller perhaps? Yay for Holstein singles.

[ivy]

Hi!

He doesn’t act like it’s bothering him to my knowledge (which is minimal) but I did suspect that it might be too big. I thought it might be because the yoke leans like that when we make a turn.

Thanks for the tip about bow pin placement, Howie.

I will look and see where the yoke hits his shoulder.

Thanks!
ivy

[ivy]

Hah! Oh children … I never was very good as a teacher’s aide. I whack him on the nose pretty well … what could be more unpleasant than that? I’ll try to think of something more attention getting and give him something heavier to drag.

I think it’s pretty interesting to read people’s animal training theories, especially if you are a novice like me. Some advocate absolute dominance but others say such training breaks the calf’s spirit, other websites I found make it sound like people train their calves with sweetness and patience and apples (my calf doesn’t even like apples).

I have a week off from my off farm job this week so we are going to have a lesson every day. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Cheers 🙂
ivy

[ivy]

I appreciate this forum so much … it gives me hope that I am training something other than halter broke hamburger … but still, I have another question.

Since Lucky has started walking next to me, he has started a pretty annoying habit, deciding he’s gonna bolt off with no real warning. This is not something he ever did when he walked behind me. Some days he does this 5 or 6 times in the course of 45 minutes and some days he never does it. I don’t think that anything is startling him (although he does sort of the same thing when something does scare him) at least, not anything that I can figure out.

Because I keep my hand down by his halter rope most of the time, I can catch him when he starts to do this and can stop him before he takes more than a few steps (but if he gets much bigger, I’m going to be going for a ride). I have been glaring at him and telling him “no” in that firm bad-dog voice and, tapping him on the nose with the goad if i can get it up there quickly enough. A few times I let him go just to see what he would do, he runs about 10 feet infront of me and then turns around and comes back.

He’s been doing this pretty consistenly for 2 weeks now and I’d like to stop it before it becomes too much of a habit. Does anyone have any pointers?

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