[Oxhill]

I think everyone has made valid points and the truth is that there is no clear answer because it depends on many variables. If you have the time and skill to start your own team then a team you start has more potential. They will be trained as you want and if you bottle feed them you will bond better with them. Many teamsters say the first team they trained was their best. However you can’t teach them what you don’t know. If you need the power and stamina of a mature team soon then obviously you should buy a started team. If you do buy a team I think you need to be very selective. It is a given that you need to select a well trained team. A older team that is more set in their ways and less spirited will test you the least. Such teams tend to be less active if you are going to work them. A younger more active team is going to test you more and you will need to earn their respect. If you buy any team make sure to negotiate at least a day to spend with the old teamster and your new team and pay attention to detail. I don’t think I have ever seen a purchased team that works completely as well for the new owner as they did for the original trainer. None of this is meant to sway you one way or the other. It is just food for thought. There is too many variables and pitfalls for either way to guarantee success.

[Oxhill]

I frequent a number of forums and DAP is at the top of the list but we maintain a facebook free home.

[Oxhill]

Your videos are great Tim! If you could find someone to fight with or some way to make it look perilous maybe you could be on next seasons ax men.

[Oxhill]

Tim Harrigan’s videos would be good for you to watch. He is a member here and his videos do a great job of showing what a well trained and well outfitted single ox is capable of. Also his ox is a Dutch Belt which is a dairy breed and probably not much bigger than a jersey will get. His videos are on here or his youtube page.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TMHarrigan/videos

[Oxhill]

For what you are describing he should be fine. Build a narrow stone boat and or cart for him and you will be able to take him places a big team can’t go. Him being a bottle calf is a positive because he will imprint on you better. It will be hard if he is your first but if you get your mind right about his future and keep it in perspective it will help a lot when the time comes. Maybe by then he will be doing well and be real handy to have and you can decide not to eat him for logical reasons and not emotional ones. Just remember he is a farm animal or a work animal with a purpose. Being your pet isn’t that purpose.

[Oxhill]

You can use him as an ox and still eat him if you want when the time comes. You can’t work him without a yoke but you can teach him to drive without one. So you can at least go that far with just an investment of your time. If nothing else break him to drive and learn from the experience. Many if not most oxen are dairy breeds. Jerseys are lightly built even for a dairy breed and some people feel they are not suitable for oxen because it is a disadvantage for heavy work. What kind of work do you want to do with him? If you want the biggest strongest ox anyone has ever seen then you defiantly better look elsewhere but if you are like the average person and just want a handy ox to work with then I think he will do just fine. A single ox can do most anything a team can do just slower because you need to make more trips with smaller loads. Often a single ox is handier than a team. I don’t have any pic of Jerseys but if you google “jersey oxen” and select images several come up.

[Oxhill]

We had a great day and a wonderful meal. I was worried when you first yoked them up but very happy to see that they work well in the new yoke! Your boys are are even more distinctive in person than they are in the photos. I agree it was nice to meet in person and talk “ox”. Believe it or not we may have gotten a lead on your “dream team” today! I will PM you the details. Thanks for having us!

[Oxhill]

If you are talking about the diffrence in the two single shoulder yokes below then I think the diffrence is just cosmetic as long as the draft and width of the hitch rings are the same.

The difference between the single head yoke and single shoulder yoke are far greater. Chris’s cows look like they are doing just fine with a head yoke so I wouldn’t be to concerned about the strength of a cows neck. Just use some common sense when conditioning your animal regardless of what yoke you use. A head yoke obviously requires that the cow has horns. It also requires fitting and adjustments by someone knowledgeable and they need the yoke and your animal to do it. These may be big issues or non-issues depending on your situation. What one is better has been disused at length in other threads. Personally what one is “better” depends on too many variables. Both are effective.

Andrew

[Oxhill]

I have never worked oxen without horns but if you use britchens you shouldn’t have any issues. Without horns or britchens backing a load or holding back a load will be an issue. I was raised with horned cattle so I don’t know any better I guess but to me cattle are supposed to have horns especially oxen. You have to teach them respect with or without horns anyway. Yes you will still get bumped once in a while but not bad. I have been stepped on as much or more than I have been hit by a horn.

[Oxhill]

This is a excerpt from Blakelee’s industrial Ecyclopedia:

Planting the Osage Hedge A hedge grower of extensive experience says that for planting if your land is in turf plow deep and subsoil a strip six feet in width and plant with potatoes the spring previous Just before planting the hedge plow again and harrow fine then stake off the ground by setting a requisite number of sight stakes in line where you want the outside row then prepare a line say fifty or more feet in length by tying on it bits of colored yarn twice the distance apart you want your plants tie each end of the line to sharpened stakes two feet in length stretch the line in row with your sight stakes and you are ready for operations Two years old plants are preferable unless the yearlings are very vigorous trim to eight or nine inches long cutting off the tops within one inch of the yellow Set two rows and the plants eighteen inches apart in each row the rows nine inches apart Dig the first hole by the mark on the line set in the plant and fill around it with earth taken from where the next plant will stand which will be half way between the plant just set and the next mark on the line but nine inches from the line This being set fill around it with earth taken from where the next plant will stand at the second mark on the line and so continue until the line is set Take up the stake where you commenced letting the one stand where you left off and place as at the first then tread the earth firmly about the plants by slowly walking the length of one row the plants being between your feet and if you see a plant that does not stand square now is the time to right it up into proper position After you have trod both rows in this manner take your spade and finish the planting by filling around the plants till the tops only are seen This dressing should be left without treading Your hedge is now well planted and a quick workman will plant sixty rods in a day the plants being furnished and distributed on the ground To Trim Osage Hedge The next spring cut down to within three inches of the ground and in June if the hedge has made good growth cut to within four inches of the previous trimming and so continue until the hedge is completed A hedge planted and trimmed after the plan given instead of being open at the bottom will be very dense and Will turn swine or other small animals at a very early age

[Oxhill]

“If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use? Two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?”

Seymoure Cray

[Oxhill]

@Countymouse 33515 wrote:

If I have learned nothing about oxen it is that if they get away with something once, they will remember how to do it again and will try it every single time.”

Very very true and it it will embolden them to find other ways of causing mischief as well.
Sounds like you handled it well.
Funny thing is the next session could very well be a great one!

[Oxhill]

@Countymouse 33440 wrote:

A sharper point was all I needed. I made sure to test the point on myself to make sure it hurt, but wasn’t going to pierce the skin or cause any sort of damage. Easy fix.

So they get the point now? 😀

Excellent.

[Oxhill]

He knows what you want. He is crowding you to try to get out of work. It is very common. You are on the right track with using the but of the goad to establish a proper distance. You just need to make it more pointed so you don’t need to use force to get him to stand off of it. Ray Ludwig even puts four points on his so if he needs to he can make a twisting motion to help get his point across even better.

[Oxhill]

@dominiquer60 33392 wrote:

He did a good job standing, I would have been tempted to bolt with Alec Baldwin so close.

If he didn’t move his ear in the beginning I would be suspicious if he was still alive! The women that bought him had one request and that was for a quiet ox. When she came to pick him up dad was riding with her while I had him out in the yard with nothing on. They pulled her truck up till the bumper was inches from his nose. Quiet he is!

I think they may have computer generated Alec into the shot so he didn’t scare the vikings.

Andrew

[Author]

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