[Vicki]

Oh so sorry to hear your devastation. Been through similar many times in years of keeping a small duck flock near the edge of the woods.
I would have advised you about trap as Carl did.
Sounds like maybe weasel or mink. I had ducks dead and sucked the life out of through the wire of their “safe” duck house. Cats brought in a dead young weasel one morning.
Cab you temporarily move the remaining birds for awhile and keep trap set?

[Vicki]

Keep the horns. Especially on her heritage breed. My two horned cows: a short Dexter and a Milking Devon x Hereford, are more tractable to handle and to hand milk even than my polled herefords.

[Vicki]

Well, the Pattens have several generations of working cattle experience on both sides of the family, from what I’ve been told. Can’t have much better go-to people than that! Wish they were HALF that close to me!

[Vicki]

Congrats, Jen, on getting your first heifer. My guess is that she is stressed and a little panicked if she has just been separated from her herd and in new surroundings. If she is not an agressive animal (which you would want to ship or eat as soon as possible), the kind of thing you did cleaning the barn is real good. My opinion is that you do not need or want to stir up her fear/flight/fight instincts with sudden overpowering means, but gain her trust by using food and her curiosity. You should be calling the shots, deciding where and when she can go places and get food and water, which you can do as you did with gates and barn doors, and eventually with halters and leads.

Move around her calmly to find her flight zone, and with patience you can narrow it and eventually eliminate it. Tease her with food treats to come closer, to take from your hand. After you get a halter on her, tie her.
You don’t know the temperament of her herd, or if she was handled severely during capture and transport, which could affect the time it takes. But if she’s a nice animal with some brains, she could come around quickly.

[Vicki]

Oh I could give that cutey Ace a wonderful career!…if I save up all my pennies and convince my hubby…

[Vicki]

What a great event Saturday! I’m sorry I had to miss Friday and Sunday. I wish I had formally met Carl and more of you other familiar names here. I’m impressed with the variety of topics and activities, the many presenters, the volunteers and sponsors, the level of organization and participation. There simply weren’t enough hours to see and do all we would have liked. I would have loved the obstacle course.

Mark and I greatly enjoyed visiting with old friends and meeting some of you! The food was great, and the scenery too.

Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen, especially Carl and Lisa.
Vicki

[Vicki]

Robin: We’re staying in White River Junction Fri. and Sat. nights to celebrate 32nd anniversary.

[Vicki]

They look great! Can’t wait to meet them and you! Turns out at last minute hubby and I will be at Field Days Sat. Will be great to see Howie and Robin again and the rest of you.

[Vicki]

Maybe Paul Starkey would have some knowledge on your questions about historical draft animal use on the Emerald Isle? Perhaps contact him? http://www.animaltraction.com/Starkey-Publications.htm

[Vicki]

I seem to remember reading this somewhere, but don’t recall where: that at the turn of the century, farm machinery started to be developed that depended on the faster pace of horses, for ground driven stuff. As farmers grew more quantities of cash crops, marketable by then as the canal system and then railroads made it possible, and because more of the great forests were cleared, the horse-drawn machinery saved lots of labor so increased productivity. So it may be that the development of farm machinery largely motivated the switch to horses. Carl mentioned this trend for the newest innovations to increase assets and production.

I also recall hearing that the horse, for farming, peaked from about 1900 to 1930; after which the tractor came on the scene and horses diminished. So actually horse powered farming did not span a long era.

Before 1900, at least in Ohio, oxen were the primary draft power on farms, even if horses could be afforded and fed they were typically for road work. Northern Ohio was heavily forested and relatively isolated because of its notrious mud and horrible roads, not conducive to horse power.

I like to point out when I’m talking to the general public (yes, this is a bit dramatic but basically accurate) that the humble ox, who is nearly forgotten now in America, actually performed most of the grunt work of developing the North American wilderness for a couple hundred years since Colonial times, while the horse was relatively a flash in the pan.

About speed of horses, farm size, covering larger plots in a day, and distance to town, as dlskidmore brings up, let me chime in some thoughts.

I know in the wilderness of Ohio, distance to town was not a factor as much as road quality or lack thereof. Ohio had terrible roads for a long time, because of its forests, soils, rainfall, which made horses unable to travel well. Oxen were preferred because they can go in mud and snow up to the belly.

Just because horses may walk faster than oxen, they may not necessarily be able to cover more ground in a day doing farming tasks. I know that horses have to be rested, fed, and watered pretty frequently compared to oxen. So unless you had multiple horse teams to rotate in, one team might poop out for the day before a team of oxen did. I know anecdotes from even pretty recent times, of oxen working all day in the woods or fields, given breaks only when the teamster took a bit of lunch to perhaps forage a few mouthfulls; then hauling firewood into town another 12 miles in the evening. From what I’ve seen of our local Amish working horses, they do work hard, but are given many breaks and have to be fed midday. The ruminant ox vs. the non-ruminating horse metabolisms make a difference. Maybe it is kind of like the tortoise and the hare.

[Vicki]

Are you selling any Dexters?

[Vicki]

This sounds so fun! There’s a slight chance I may even be able to attend.
I’ve had to back up my oxen on a curve, then have the oxen touch backward a barrel stacked on another barrel without knocking it over; or touch a suspended chime to make it ring.

[Vicki]

Tim, I was just going to inquire about Abe’s lameness. I’m so happy to hear he has recovered from that. But this new horn injury is sad news.

I remember when Brandt’s off ox Jack got his off-side horn broken off. Lots of blood and no doubt quite painful. Brandt found the horn dangling and bleeding one morning, supect a kick from a horse knocked it off. He was only three at the time I think; not nearly as old as Will. Brandt kept blue-cote on it and soon the hole healed over. Brandt worked them soon after, using a brichen on Jack. Brandt pulled them at Fryeburg that same year. He was OK before long, but always a bit shy about anyone on his off side. The horn was broken off so close that it never grew back.

I am telling you this just to encourage you that other oxen have endured horn injury and continued on in their working careers.

I certainly hope Will heals up quickly without trouble.

[Vicki]

Hard or easy to train is often more a function of the trainer than of the animals. And hard or easy are relative: a smart animal is easy because he learns quickly, but hard because he thinks for himself and can act up or challenge more.

Dr. Drew Conroy lists longhorns as active and alert, with a tractibility of 10 (difficult). That’s the same as he lists Dexters, which I trained, which I like a lot. If you get the calves young before they get “wild” running with their dams, and you handle them well, I think you have a good chance for success.

[Vicki]

This has been a great discussion. I tend to think like the original poster; I instinctively “layer” steps whether I’m learning or teaching, that’s how my mind works. I always try to get “head knowledge” first, then integrate it into action. Tim is correct–that what is NOT in the books is as important as what is; and as mother katherine says also, integration is the key to success.
The first time I tried to drive oxen, I knew nothing about cattle in general, and was quite a failure. I am more “theory” oriented by nature, not “instinctive” about working animals, so watching good mentors is vital to illustrate the theory and bridge the gap from concept to action.
With my own cattle, I went through the “layers”, though many of them occur simultaneously, and have achieved a level of “success” in that we can get some things done.
When I begin to mentor someone, I begin at those basic layers, helping the person to understand the animal and then using the understanding to lead the animal.
I appreciate Carl’s emphasis on leadership, because he made me realize that I need to strengthen this aspect in my work with animals.

[Author]

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