[mother katherine]

I have a pair of Jersey crosses:Jersey sire on Ayrshire and on Holstein. They’re only 18 months or so, so I don’t know how large they’ll get, but their mothers weren’t huge. I haven’t pushed them with grain, so they’re probably only 900 lbs(?) by now. I keep them on the thin side. Haven’t had any issues with health or feet. They were out with the sheep all winter except for a couple of the windiest chill factor days.
They are bright, willing and think I’m one of the herd. As long as they recognise me as the dominant part I’m happy. They are also energetic.
If you know the guy, see what the cows’ temperaments are and get calves out of the more tractable ones.
I’m pleased with my boys, in short.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Joshua,
Love the name “Sharpee” out of “Magic Marker”. Sounds like some of the gags I pull with sheep names.
Back to topic. Oldkat, were you thinking of “The Longhorns” by J Frank Dobie? I LOVE that book. When it was pulled from the local library shelves I hounded the librarian for it. Went the night before the book sale to “help” carry, unload and display books until I found it. Told the girl, “I’ll pay anything you want for it!” She thought I was nuts; but I now have my own copy: plastic wrapped and with the original dustjacket.
Kgerstner: if you can get a copy of that book, do it. I think it’s out of print, but Amazon or one of those used book sites may be able to find you one. Of course, as the guy was a Texan, the book may be right on some local library’s shelves. Try an interlibrary loan.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

I’m getting excited to go to the agricultural fairs in our area. They’re pretty lame compared to what we went to in Maine, but better than nothing. There are no ox events and few draft horse competitions.
Someday, I’ll get back to Fryeburg in the first week of October.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Ixy,
I can’t wait to go to the library to see you and Angus!
I’ve been sitting on bRod frequently. He’s decided he’s not too happy with it: probably a dominance thing related to his 18 month old age. I just tie him and sit there rubbing and praising him for 5 minutes at the most, then get off and praise him some more. I think he’ll get over it, as he didn’t mind at all when he was little.
The linebacks are less problematic at this time so I want to try with one of them, as well.
I think our sheep would keel over with heart failure if I ever tried rounding them up with a steer.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

If you look in a number of these threads, a variety of books are mentioned as resources and used by the teamsters to undergird their knowledge and practice. There are place and need for both hands on and theory foundation. I went to nursing school and we had oodles of book work – but we had the clinical work at the same time to practice the concepts and work out our own variants of the material with the individual patients. The theory was nothing without the concomitant person to person work. The hands on was nothing without the underlying theory. Believe me, there were/are plenty of people who suck at any job because they can’t mesh the two.
Again, I don’t think the book learning is at issue here. Many of the people who learned their craft of teamstering have as much theory as any book – they just learned it from a mentor instead of off a page as they grew up and worked under supervision.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

PS The heading here is “Oxen” for the threads. There’s some real good reading.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Welcome to DAP and the world of working cattle. You’ll find lots of info here. Check out some of the threads under “working cattle’.
The discussion has come up a couple of times. The consensus is, use what you have availble and what you like as a breed.
If the beef bulls are handy, you probably could start training them, just to get the hang of it. They already have a destination if it doesn’t work out. If there are some dairy type cattle around, you could start another pair after getting your feet wet with the beefers.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

You did the right thing by keeping them going until they performed just as you wanted. Once they figure out that if they are stroppy and you let them out of completing whatever the task at hand is, you’re lost.
One of our teams was a rescue pair of 6 year olds. Even if we were “done” and headed back to rest, if they acted up(ran away), we went right back to work for 15-30 minutes with a load. They never did straighten out, so we shipped them.
Yes, I’m more persistent/stubborn than they are, but that’s because I’m the dominant member of the group.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

This is to tout the ox again.
As you are already used to walking beside the draft animal istead of behind it, the working cattle would be familiar, as most teamsters walk beside their teams, as well as ahead of or behind them.
No reins.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Denise,
If you are around dairy people, you might consider working cattle. When we first started moving toward draft power, I was thinking horse. When I went to my first class introducing the draft animals, I found oxen much more attractive for a variety of reasons, not least less expense to keep and equip.
If you can get hold of Drew Conroy’s book “Oxen: A Teamster’s Guide” published by Storey, that might set the juices working.
Bull calves can be real cheap, relatively easy to train and fertise as they go. They come real young(we brought ours home at a week old), so imprinting and dominance are not issues.
There are quite a few ox teamsters on this forum who are willing to teach.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

From what I can gather, I believe the Devons American teamsters use are a form of the red ruby. The beef features are not so pronounced, as the people here kept the triple purposes in balance: meat, milk and draft.
They’re a medium to smaller breed, extremely intelligent, quick and emotionally active( I don’t know if high strung is the right term). We had a pair and they were wonderful – however, they had never been convinced that the teamster is the dominant member. They were 6 years old when we got them, and after a year of remedial work -with no beating or correcting of that nature – we had to ship them. Sometime, I’d like to start a pair of calves: it would, presumably, turn out much happier and safer for us all.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Howie,
At Billings in Vt, Dan Conklin took the whole boat: walking plow, sulky plow and grand champion. Someone there, I think I heard it was Dan’s brother, had a small pair of calves. He had taken the large plow off a walking plow, leaving just the coulter, had the little guys pull that. Wayne said he was the hit of the day.
Over at Plowboy’s in NY, it was real hot and muggy on Saturday. Sunday had a bit of a breeze. Not too many people showed up. Horses were hot but seemed in good shape and worked along. Plowboy had his multiple hitch (6 or 8) on the gang plow. One guy had a fancy White Horse 2 way plow with hydraulics. Butch Miner had just had both knees done so he watched from the sidelines. Bob Harrington hadn’t had his horses out since snow went off, so he was afraid he’d kill them if he asked to plow. Les Crawford was there, but Harold, his nephew rode the plow. People mentioned Fred Bennett who comes sometimes with a walking plow, but he didn’t seem to be there.
Between the heat and allergies, I didn’t have the energy to load the steers either day. I love winter!
oxnun

[mother katherine]

My cousin is in Waldoboro
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Thanks, guys for mentioning this book. We were able get a used copy. I haven’t started it yet, but looking forward to it.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

New England Ox Supply in New Hampshire sells all manner of things including knobs. Just use their store name in your search engine. They do mail order.
At some point, I want to put knobs on the steers’ horns – they’ll look so handsome.
oxnun
oxnun

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