[Vicki]

countryboy: Jerseys could be Free or up to $25 to $50 in NY I think.

Make sure your calves get colostrum (free dairy bulls might not) and ask about Johnne’s disease–common in dairies but you want to avoid it. In long run, might be worth paying a bit more to know you’re getting from a Johnne’s free herd if possible.

I’m prepared to pay $250 for halter handled Dexter calves a few weeks old.

[Vicki]

Shorthorns are rather slow-growing so I think you have plenty of time for castration. I’d recommend the vet cut them. I think by waiting to castrate you will get heavier horns and broader faces; this has been my experience with Dexters and Holsteins. There are many opinions about castration; you should talk to local oxmen and a vet who knows about oxen like Doc Collins.

For flies, you can use wipe-on repellent for horses. You can also make fly masks of fringes or strips of leather or cords that hang over the face and mechanically keep the flies away from eyes and nose. The mask attaches around the horns.

I have wanted to make these for my oxen but haven’t yet. If anyone knows where one can purchase some ready made, let us know.

[Vicki]

Sorry, Old Kat and Howie, but hair loss beginning between legs does not sound like lice. Hair loss from lice will almost always show up first on tailhead or withers and neck, where hair is thick. Hair loss where hair is thin, such as inner legs, is typical of mites. I’ve had lice on my cattle and pour-on always works, but I don’t know if it will work for mites. I’ve never dealt with mites. And there are two kinds of mites.

I like Cydectin pour-on.

[Vicki]

I do what Tim does, and for same reasons. Tried a vinegar concoction once, and couldn’t stand the stench.

[Vicki]

I have one ten year old steer whose eyes water from fly irritation, much more than the others’. You can treat with antihistamines, talk to your vet. Watch for pus, for the calf avoiding bright light, or other signs of infection.

[Vicki]

http://tiny.cc/uw1K8 cattle vision

[Vicki]

Reference “The Well-being of Farm Animals” online, Grazing Animal Vision pg.123. Research indicates they are dichromats most sensitive to yellow-green and blue-purple light, especially sensitive to motion and high contrasts.

[Vicki]

With the goad-on-the-ground-in-front-of-them method, there is the possibility that your team may move a step or two, pinning your goad embarrassingly under a hoof, making it impossible to use until you have them step up or back, which you will have to do without goad, and if they are young they may start off without you while you are retrieving said goad, requiring you to rush after them, which can damage your credibility with your oxen and with any onlookers, not to mention feeling very foolish in your own eyes. How do I know this. . .?

Howie and Tim are right: just teach them to stand. Often I lay the goad across the team’s necks while they stand if I need hands free.

[Vicki]

Just my opinion: if they are not of the same herd, do not take Angus in the midst of the others while working. Going past them on other side of fence would be a good training challenge for the young Angus to teach him to keep his focus on you. But in the others’ pasture, you cannot control them and you and Angus could be hurt, or the control break down so much that it would be negative training for Angus. It could shake Angus’ trust in you to lead him into a “political” situation you can’t control.

If you can herd the others temporarily out of those fields or set up temporary electric fence to keep them away from direct access to you while working, try that.

[Vicki]

Paul, you give good counsel. I really appreciate the way you describe the use of the goad. It took me a year or more to come to that understanding. It’s not explicitly stated in the materials I’ve seen, and unless you’re a natural intuitive cattle trainer–not me!–it’s the cattle that teach you this.

Victoria, if you see it coming, you may need merely a word or a touch or calling the ox’s name to let him know you’re watching in order to correct or refocus him.

[Vicki]

This is good and clear advice from Tim.

It will require you to stay right on them at all times, meaning you rivet all attention on them and watch for the tiniest indication of goofing off, distraction, fear, excitement, noncompliance, etc. then address it immediately. This taught me to really focus on and observe my cattle, by which I learned to read and anticipate their behavior. I had had a tendency to be too casual and daydreaming so that they had already gotten off track by the time I noticed, requiring me to correct, rather than maintaining more even control by heading off problems. This was a case of me needing to train MYSELF.

After that, work sessions became more even and stayed more relaxed for all three of us.

I also found that when we went into an unfamiliar environment, they behaved better and focused more intently on my cues because they depended on my leadership more than when they thought they knew their way around. Don’t rush it, but when you are confident that they will stop and that they are responsive to you and that you can read them, go on an unfamiliar trail in the woods or to a new area on the property, or go by a new route. They will probably be very attentive and responsive.

[Vicki]

Way to go, Rod. I wish I had done this when mine were young!

[Vicki]

Charly, no doubt there are limits and conditions to the general statement I made about oxen working all day. Perhaps I was irresponsible to toss out such a generality without investigating and presenting the facts. Nonetheless, anecdotal evidence suggests the generality: many memories from New England of oxen that were worked in field and woodlot all day, then making a twelve mile trip into town in evening to deliver a wagon of firewood. The American great westward migration and the freight lines of the West. . . There are small times of “rest” in such work and some of it may be at a pace that oxen can chew cud.

I was also thinking of conditions of use in underdeveloped regions where oxen endure.

I know that in my county, a lot of produce farming, hay and grain farming and harvesting, logging, and maple sugaring, is done with horsepower. Those horses are fed and rested for over an hour midday. I don’t have all the physiology facts right now, but you inspire me to look into differences of blood sugar, muscle metabolism, glycogen storage and delivery, lactic acid etc. between the ruminants–cattle–and horses.

[Vicki]

Yes. Check out the websites of Tillers International and the Midwest Ox Drovers Association to see photos of oxen working in various jobs and tasks.

Depending on weather and breed, oxen may not always walk as quickly as horses, but they can work all day without rest and feed breaks, so may not always take longer to get things done. Also, yoking and hitching takes only mere minutes.

[Vicki]

My little angel-calves became naughty devil-steers for a few months during during year two. Others told me it was normal terrible two’s. I kept on with a firm hand, had to be right on them at all times, and soon they settled into reliable and trustworthy working cattle.

During this feisty period, the number two steer took dominance over the original number one steer, which also shook things up for a couple months.

At nine and a half years old, they still often get snorty playful–but never threatening– like you describe, especially at dusk, which I actually find endearing.

[Author]

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