[mother katherine]

Oxen Acres,
If you can get Drew Conroy’s book, it will give a formula to calculate feed. Another possibilty, as you are in NH, is to get hold of the NH 4H Working Steer booklet. Both are available from Allyson Bronnenberg at New England Ox Supply. She has an online store.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Hey, oldways,
Where is Somerset, NY? We’re down here in Otego. I’m from Maine, so don’t know where a lot of places are in this state (yet). I miss the ox culture that thrives in Maine and am always on the lookout for teamsters around here.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Where’s your farm?
I have a pair of Jersey crosses who are tied in the barn at this point(they’ve learned to leap the fence to be with me). They are anxious to GO. I’ve been prepared by having a Devon team earlier – now, they can GO. I’m working with the guys to go “easy”, as I’m not always energetic enough to trot alongside.
They do pretty well, but are faster out of the barn than after a walk, some pulling and time to cavort in the field. I look forward to the time they are bigger and have more time in the paddock to just blow off steam so they’ll choose to go a little slower.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

When my mother turned 50, we had a BIG party. I found a coffee cup at the Hallmark store that said, “It’s Nifty to be Fifty”.
Many happy returns of the day
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Dubba,
Is that you from the ox logging in Louden in October??
How’s it going? I’ve forgotten your steers’ names. I do remember they NOT Jerseys. Which parent was the Brown Swiss?
Starting anybody new for the next fair season? Good luck
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Ok, my British dialect isn’t up to date. What going treeless?
Maybe the site Riding Steers might be of some help.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Ixy, How’s it going with teaching the steer to round up the sheep?
oxnun

[mother katherine]

If you’ve seen the video “Training Oxen” with Drew Conroy and Tim Huppe, Drew has an older pair that ran with their mothers for 6 – 9 months. The wisdom is, start and stop multitudinous times. If they don’t respond to gentle taps, step it up a notch. Don’t “beat’ them, but get their attention. Pulling on halters and lead ropes becomes a bad habit that they begin to rely on as a cue. When they get a little more size, that lead rope means nothing in the tug of war.
The most important thing is, to establish that you are the dominant steer in the trio. An easy way to cue them that you are dominant is to not let them eat OR DRINK unless you give it to them directly. That means no standing water tank always full, no loose hay around. Feed and water them twice a day or so; make sure they’ve had what they want at that time, then take it away.
Their society in bovine terms works this way. It won’t take them too long to respect you and follow your lead. I had a problem adult team and this was more effective than anything else I could do to get them to understand I was BOSS and IN CHARGE. No hollering, no beating, just a nonverbal exchange in their own societal terms.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Matthew
Now THAT’S funny. My family in Maine has enjoyed stories of that type for years – especially my Uncle John(RIP)
oxnun

[mother katherine]

I love it!! Thanks for putting this up. Sounds like my kind of life.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Dominiquer
Where are you in NY? We’re in Otsego county.
On the dairyman – that’s a tragedy. We have a young family up the hill trying to live on dairying, and it’s next to impossible. He and she work shoulder to shoulder, quit their off farm jobs, and are good, decent people. The milk prices, thanks to big biz, are killing them. Another young dairyman near us is slowly sinking under a mound of debt: poor milk prices and no off farm job. He sells hay to try and make a few bucks. We recently started doing hay business with another youngish couple: same deal. These are all farms about the size of Pierson’s: around 50 milkers.
My heart bleeds for these people just trying to live and raise families against all odds.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Just caught this thread and have read it through. I want to join in with saying “amen” to the success of rotating, clipping and broadcasting seed as a good way to refresh worn out pasture without mightily disruptive and, for us, expensive machine driven intervention.
As a rejoinder to the sheep/goat discussion. We have a variety of breeds of sheep. I like the primitive types better for eating a bigger variety of things. My favorites are the little Icelandic sheep; they’ll stay in a marginal pasture and thrive when the “improved” sheep are hollering “there’s nothing to eat!!” Ours are sociable and follow me when we’re moving paddocks; they understand the routine (routine is a big factor in sheep psychology) and willingly join in and know where they’re going. All without dogs or multitudes of “beaters” to keep them on track.
I look forward to adding the working steers to the mix
oxnun

[mother katherine]

Do you know the book by Drew Conroy? The name has escaped me just this minute. He covers almost every facet of ox training clearly and invitingly.
Check on this forum for posts by “Ixy”; she’s in England, but I don’t remember just where. She’d be a good “in person” resource.
In Drew’s book he mentions Paul Starkey, who researches draft power; he lives in Britain and may very well be a resource for you.
You’ll enjoy your boys, I’m sure. I got my first pair to train a year ago. Time certainly has flown. A former dairyman, who knows nothing about ox draft power, has been helping make the yokes. We, too, started out with plastic bows – worked smashingly.
My husband was from Staffordshire: Stoke-on-Trent. His father worked in the potteries, but I’ve forgotten which particular company.
This forum is the best for information, inspiration and entertainment. Don’t overlook the videos – I love watching the big guys working. All the different breeds are fascinating to see.
One of my mentors, Tim Huppe, uses dairy shorthorns primarily for his teams.
oxnun

[mother katherine]

That means I’m a volovicharka kaluderka. Thanks for all the words. Durdevic will surprised when I tell him.
oxnun
I LOVED the video with the huge black oxen pulling tremendous loads in the obstacle course. I’ll have to make some of those fancy red fringes – to keep flies out of the steers’ eyes.

[mother katherine]

Bivol,
I enjoy your comments and videos. The note that it was common in chile to have different colored beasts under yoke is interesting. I wonder whose culture it came from? The Spanish or indigenous?
Without getting into the ideological problems, I’ve been wanting to ask for some time: which of various former Yugoslavian peoples are you from? We have Serbs in our area, some displaced Bosnians and probably others I haven’t met yet.
I download a lot of your stories and pictures from “the old country” to give them. They entertain me with stories and teach me various words and phrases.
What is oxnun or ox drover in your language?
oxnun

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