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Nat(wasIxy)
Participantis it called a ‘pickaxe’ hitch?
ParticipantThe answer to keeping cattle out year-round is very, very simple – move them every day. This is what we do, and over 8 years (allowing time for the epastures to repair themselves, build diversity etc) we have decreased our housing period to just 2 months, on heavy clay in a very low, wet area. We never fertilise, spray, top etc and make silage or hay purely to keep on top of the grass if it gets away from the herd. We never worm, vaccinate or use pour-ons on the animals. As they graze intensively, nothing is wasted and weeds cannot survive for long. NO grain is ever fed to the cattle.
We’re hopefully going into dairy, with jerseys, after the success of the beef on this system. I do NOT think that pushing cows for higher yields is the answer – what on earth has that acheived so far? Farmers being paid a pittance for their milk, and consumers paying less for it than bottled water and tipping Xlitres down the sink because it goes off before they drink it – but who cares? it’s cheap, we’ll buy some more….. IMO we are already well supplied, even over-supplied, with dairy and we’ll know when we’re not because the price will go up!!!
Who does doom-mongering like this help? Consumers? No. Farmers? No way! Cows? I think you know the answer…
GM companies? Drug companies? Feed companies? ….. 😉
ParticipantThat’s part of the reason Rob went for dexters. Some of them are simply too small, but the ones that are a sensible size are very good at what they do – live on fresh air and produce a good calf. I’m using jerseyXbelgian blues as the basis of my sucklers as they are small and hardy, with plenty of milk, easy calving and a decent shape from the belgian.
ParticipantMe and Rob have just been discussing this – how in ‘the old days’ when cattle walked to market they would have been at least 4yrs old and walked off any fat they had on, creating lean meat. Now we fatten them, then ferry them to market so they are like barrels on legs – even though the consumer now wants lean meat and the exterior stuff gets trimmed off, it still persists like this? Is this a contributing factor to obesity? Our meat is grassfed and very lean ideed which customers love, but our cows would be laughed out of a sale-ring? :confused::rolleyes:
ParticipantAngus has always had an attraction to sheep, so we have tried him at rounding them up and he did very well indeed! We did a fair amount of canter over a rough field with long grass and he was so sure footed, never stumbled once and I stayed on without stirrups – my partner said anyone who thinks oxen are slow should see this! 😀 He had a good hold over the sheep too, once put in a corner they didn’t dare try getting past him, and he watched them very intently the whole time!
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o283/sprogspawn/sheepherding1.jpg
Participantooo big question! probably white park?
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ParticipantThey didn’t seem to have time for that in the old days – the mthod I’ve seen described is getting ropes on them, pulling them down and driving a stick though their nose….then be infuriated when the animal constantly tries to attack you/buck you off/run away :rolleyes:
ParticipantAnne – amazing – you are my inspiration!
ParticipantThe draft sheep project rides again! I’ve been allowed to milk our biggest ewe – ‘Big Fat Blackface’ (they are kerry hills and she has huge black patches ove rmost of her face – no good for showing!) and she has two wether lambs at foot. As they will be kept at home and getting fed, they should grow up tame, and, being twins, well matched with any luck! They should also be BIG as she is a big ewe, and they are crossed with a Wensleydale, which is big AND they’ll have hybrid vigour 😮 So we might get some serious weight pulled when they get to 3/4yrs old!
ParticipantLots of people I’ve spoken to really rate longhorns, especially for riding – some of the most interesting things I’ve seen cattle do has been with longhorns 😀 They seem very intelligent and athletic – beautiful too. I’ve been desperate to get some here in the UK for a long time but it is *highly* expensive to import embryos, semen etc. so it has to wait 🙁
ParticipantI think the difference between a human piercing and an animal piercing is that a) a human chooses it themselves and b) It’s not generally pulled around. When a pig’s nose is rung to stop it digging, it soon learns not to dig as they pulling on the ring hurts it, that’s how it works. Likewise a bull can be led by it’s nosering as it is eager to conform to what you want rather than have the pain in it’s nose.
I think as bivol says, in the past oxen were take from a near-wild state and made to work in a very quick time – a stick through the nose was a quick way to get it to submit. Mine are trained almost from birth and have no kind of bit at all – it’s not vital. OK if you wanted ot use one for whatever reason, but you don’t have to feel that you MUST.
ParticipantMine isn’t shod, but does pick his feet up. I’ve never trimmed his feet. I notice that our suckler cows, who rarely get trimmed, have wide, flat feet – I think this reduces poaching on the land and is generally a good thing. I went to see the Chillingham ‘wild’ cattle recently and they had the same feet.
ParticipantI think dairy cattle make way better oxen than most beef breeds – beef breeds here at least pretty much get left to their own devices and certainly things like limousins are just wild 😮 the exception for me is belgian blues – dopey, but super docile, and they make a goodlooking cross. I’m building up a herd of jerseyXBBs as a suckler herd, they look good, milk good, eat grass good and have nice temperaments 😀 I would not mind a jerseyXbb ox at all, but the last male calf I had I had to sell for the money – nobody here wanted to see him go though! I also find my herefordX heifers have good looks and a good temperament. The dexters take time to get to know you, and are the first of the bunch to escape if they want some fun….
All my oxen have been dairy or dairyX so far, the simmentalX turned out good, the brown swiss went bad – quick to learn and zippy despite what people say, but he learnt he was stronger than me and that was that.
Best by a mile so far has been Tex, my Ayrshire – I dunno if it’s a fluke, but he seems to have been born ready-trained.
ParticipantSounds really good – do we have pictures of this tedder? Will you ‘bling’ tem up for the show? 😉
ParticipantI am not into the everyday thing, especially when working with babies. I only do enough to get the lesson learnt, the rest of the time they are free to be babies. When my first was young he went sometimes a month between lessons, but they do not forget and we could just pick up where we left off. Now I might work mine a handful of times until they are a year – just to get catching, leading and stopping and starting down. Even after that, I don’t work anywhere near everyday – for me this is one of the very positive points of oxen Vs horses, they just don’t need endless repetition, once it’s in, it’s in.
The way I ensure mine can always be caught is to reward them *just* for that, especially when young, and doing work or boring endless leading training doesn’t strike me as much of a reward, and if that’s done everyday they know to run off rather than do work. So, my ‘training session’ may just simply consist of catching, tying, then releasing straightaway as a reward for being good. Or catching, tying and giving a feed/brush/treat, then releasing. This way they never know if they will be caught for a boring training session or a treat, but they never pass up the chance for a treat!
I can forsee the trouble with using their daily feeding as the opportunity to catch them being that they know when and where they will be fed, and if you tried to catch them for something else, outside of their daily routine, you won’t be able to. I want mine ‘on call’ 24/7 so I can just grab them out of the field/herd and get to work whenever I want.
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