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Kevin Cunningham
ParticipantI love the idea of living fences and I have thought a lot about putting in some hedgerows on our property and I probably still will. I heard once that you should invest in a fence up to the liability when the animals get out. I other words if the animals getting out would be costly then you need to invest more in the fence. That being said all fencing even the most robust is psychological control. If the animal wants or needs to get out they will. My electric fences have about the same success rate as the neighbors barbed wire.
ParticipantI am proud of my first team but I also made many many mistakes so I am training a second team to replace the first team. My big team is 5 so they are in their prime but oxen don’t have the longevity that horses do and by about 8 I expect the big boys to start lagging. The new team is 2 so by the time the other team is old they will be in their prime. I can envision a system on our farm where we are starting and retiring a team almost every year. We do plan on harvesting the beef from the oxen so we also may not want them to get too old and fat. I have ever worked multiple teams but I can already see where it would be nice to have the extra power. We have some big timber in our area and having multiple teams could make a big difference there. Plus oxen are like potato chips you can;t just have one!
April 22, 2016 at 9:19 am in reply to: Looking for an Apprenticeship in the Pacific Northwest #88732ParticipantHey Spencer I haven’t been on the forum for a while and I saw that you had posted this a little while back. Well you did manage to find us probably the only place in the pacific northwest that uses oxen on a working farm. It was good to talk to you the other day let us know what your plans are.
ParticipantI have banded early as well as waiting a year and have not yet noticed much difference. My current team is plenty beefy and they were banded. I think the best way to get a thick neck is to pull logs. I also haven’t had any urinary tract problems, knock on wood. So basically it comes down to what is easiest for your situation. Banding is easy and cheap as opposed to getting a vet to cut them later. Personally I don’t like crimping because I haven’t had great success that method.
ParticipantHaving used the single shank ripper with my oxen I would think that it wold be too much draft for a pony of that size. I am not experienced with horses but I think it might be too much. I often find with my team of oxen that there is what they can pull (maximum) and what the should pull (minimum) and then the honest work level (somewhere in between). When I am using the animals in the garden I want the draft level to be on the lower end of their capacity. In other words even if an animal can pull it you don’t want them using their full exertion to do garden work. Garden work should be done at a nice easy pace and it also needs to be done for longer periods of time. Sure my team can pull a heavy log for a short distance and I want to use that training to build the animal up so that when I hitch the garden tools to them that they can have a nice easy but honest work session. In my experience (which is rather short) animals don’t enjoy walking in circles all day, so if you are adding in high levels of exertion they will quickly tire mentally and physically.
ParticipantThe design on the All-in-One is simple and while it might not fit every single application I love using ours. It is easy to handle and Annie designed it to work with a single horse. We use it with our team of oxen and the simple hitch point and design works great for us. But with oxen it can’t be used solo so it always takes two people to run it. The quality is very high, which is mirrored in the price. She did not use cheap steal to build it and it is an heirloom quality tool, which is something you don’t find much any more. I think the All in One is great but it may not fit everybody’s system. So you just need to evaluate what you want to do.
Participantlet’s try that picture again
ParticipantHere in California I only get one cutting unless I irrigate. And by the time I can get to it is mature, dry, and browning. This is one of the reasons why I chose to raise oxen because once mature they can eat this poor forage. When I was back east I was surprised and the quality of the hay. Your first cutting looks almost dairy quality to me. It is all perspective I guess. I also get to graze all winter so that balances out.
I hope to try and make loose hay in the near future to try and improve our hay quality. I would venture to say that cutting by hand it impractical. I have scythed quite a bit and 1-2 acres by hand is a big job. I always cut some but I feed it green. Mowing is the easy part raking and stacking is where all the work is.
One of my next goals is loose hay stacking with the oxen. I was inspired at the field days and I hope to be ready by next spring.
ParticipantI am curious about this new cart keep us posted on the progression. I hope o make a basic arch this winter so I am looking for any good ideas.
ParticipantI have been in plenty of groups of farmers that I have experience in common, but I have never been a part of a group that also shares a passion for animals and draft. The gathering for me was a gathering of true peers and that made it easy to socialize. Most of the time I simply keep to myself as most people just don’t get the life that I have chosen to live. I think that it relates ti what Carl is saying a lot. We are a part of a culture and that includes a live transmission of knowledge. I don’t have a many true peers here in the west but I found a wealth of them 3000 miles away. Luckily we live in the best time in history to start and run a farm. Our access to resources is unprecedented and I for one am glad to have this forum to learn what I can, but I can assure you that I will make more effort to get my boots on the ground with other teamsters to get that direct transmission of knowledge.
ParticipantWelcome, the forum isn’t as active as it used to be, but hopefully it will kick back up again soon. There is a wealth of knowledge archived here however. You can read about many different topics oxen related. I don’t know much about Australia but our climate here in California is probably more similar than that of the northeast. Good luck with the bullocks.
ParticipantFor me personally this was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had. I did not travel the furthest but it was still a haul for me to get there from California. I am so grateful to everybody there. I got to meet so many people I have known for years from the forum. It really was such a wonderful gathering of great people. Even through it was a jam packed weekend with two serious travel days bookending the experience, I returned home rejuvenated and refreshed. I am not a very social person but I found it so easy to introduce myself and strike up conversation with so many folks this weekend. It was awesome and I hope to find a way to make back out for the next one.
ParticipantThat is also what I thought I remembered. My next question is how do you tell a high gear from a low gear aside from counting the gears. Are there any markers or placards? I know where there are some old mowers sitting in the bushes and I am not an expert in telling them apart.
ParticipantI have been trying to find the old thread about which mowers are geared for slower animals. I know there is a difference for slower paced oxen, but I am wondering how fast do your Devons step up? I would also like to find a good mower at some point but I am pretty sure that I will have to drag one out of the bushes and restore it.
ParticipantSeeing this really makes me appreciate what all the horse drivers do. I have never actually seen the whole harnessing start to finish. That takes a lot of time and dedication, I am very impressed. It makes throwing a yoke on seem like cheating. It is also neat to see how this is passed on within a family. My son is still little but I do hope he can yoke cattle at a young age even if he never pursues it. The lessons that are learned from working with the animals can’t be taught in a school or any other extra curricular activity for that matter. This was great to watch.
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