[Oxbow Farm]

I know this is an old thread but we’ve gone pretty hardcore into hoophouses. I can definitely recommend the lostcreek bender. We’ve been making a gothic arch style house with it combined with a homemade bender I cobbled up to make the peaks. I’ll attempt to add a pic from this fall when we had several under construction. They are about 16′ by 48′ and about 9 ft at the peak.

[Oxbow Farm]

Ixy, I am very cognizant of the fact that the tractor fuel will run out some day, maybe sooner rather than later. It’s one reason I am fooling around growing my own wheat and potatoes and cows and making ox yokes and shoveling manure and chopping wood. So that I know how to do so when it counts and can keep my kids fed.

My point is that there is no way to generate the same agricultural production using animal traction that is produced using conventional petroleum based methods. I am aware that conventional agriculture is unsustainable and that the entire system is rife with waste and inefficiency. I am pretty confident that the whole thing will fall apart and we’ll have to make do. I’m just saying I do not believe that we can just go “OK we’ll use oxen then tra-la-la!” The skills are mostly gone, the tools are mostly gone, the will to do the work is almost totally gone except for a small minority of weirdos like us on this forum. Making the transition in light of that will be agonizing. My choice is to try and prepare as best I can now to be able to help my family, friends, and neighbors when the time comes.

[Oxbow Farm]

Its not remotely the same. A 1000 acres farmed with a tractor takes one or two big tractors and associated equipment and their operators and a bunch of diesel. A 1000 acres farmed with oxen takes many many teams and many many teamsters. But the biggest diffence is the fuel. The tractor acres are fueled with fossilized sunlight. The ox acres are fueled by current sunlight. So a significant percentage of the 1000 acres has to go to feed the teams and the teamsters. This production never hits the market. So animal traction can never be as productive as petroleum agriculture cause your “tractor” is eating the same fuel as you are. When agriculture switched to tractors all those acres of hay and oats were converted to market acreage. If we contemplate switching back then all those acres have to be switched back as well. But there are billions more people now than there were back then. That’s why they call it overshoot. Scares the crap out of me.

[Oxbow Farm]

Here are a couple of the side I’ve been using towards the rear.

[Oxbow Farm]

From today

[Oxbow Farm]

He’s pretty cool looking. Are those German 3-pad collar hames ?

[Oxbow Farm]

It’s a seven inch.

[Oxbow Farm]

Here’s a company that has a couple varieties. Don’t know how economical theya are. http://sustainableseedco.com/flint-corn/

[Oxbow Farm]

Just received the Feb/Mar issue of RH and must say it has some really nice ox content. There’s ab article on reel mowing with oxen which is excellent. A profile of Vicki Solomon and a very interesting article on controlling oxen nasally. Was that you Bivol? All in all a very encouraging change from recent issues since the change in ownership. Hats off to Joe.

[Oxbow Farm]

So how are they coming along?

[Oxbow Farm]

Bivol,

Maybe we can get you a copy of Rural Heritage to show them? If they actually see a copy of a magazine with oxen in it they may be more likely to think its real. Just a thought.

This most recent issue does have the pics from the MODA gathering so there are several pics of different teams.

Tim

[Oxbow Farm]

In that situation I believe the main purpose of the britchen is to help with backing. In general the britchen helps keep the yoke from sliding too far forward on the neck and also from falling off to one side or the other. A single yoke is a lot less stable than a team yoke, the britchen adds stability. IMO

[Oxbow Farm]

@Rob FLory 17046 wrote:

Hi All and a shoutout to “My Favorite Misanthrope”,

Rob, I’ve got this special shampoo now, totally took care of the misanthrope thing!

Hope to get down there this summer and see you guys and Jake before he loses all his teeth.

Tim

[Oxbow Farm]

I was really saddened last year when I saw pics of the oxen and Bud wasn’t in them. I realized something must have happened to him but didn’t know what until stumbling onto this forum. That team got me hooked on oxen, it took quite a few years after leaving Howell before it happened but I knew I had to do something with working cattle. I got to meet Dana at the oxen workshop the Huppe’s and Drew Conroy did in 2004, I told him how well the boys had done at the Billings Farm Plowing Match and he was really pleased. I’m sure he was happy that a team he had done so well with had ended up in such a perfect life for oxen. Bud had a great life and outlived 99% of the bull calves ever born in New England that year I guess.

One benefit I can see of Chris right off the bat is color. Bud and Jake were so well matched that about the only way to tell them apart was horn shape, with Chris’s big horns and reddish tint I imagine it must be a lot easier to keep them straight in your head.

Tim

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