Cows for Draft Animals?

[JBurch]

Is it unheard of, or not recommended to use a couple milk cows for draft animals? I want to get a couple milking shorthorns for milk and beef production. Is it realistic to think these cows would make useful draft animals? I assume they would be out of commission (not able to work) for a time before and after calving, but in my uninformed mind it seems they would be able to work 9 or 10 months out of the year. Any helpful input would be appreciated.

[bivol]

hi!

in short, yes. cows can be trained and worked just like oxen, with no difference. old folks i know used to say cows can be trained more easilly than oxen, maybe because they were used as diary animals, and therefore had lots of socialization. but bear in mind that the breed, socialization and previous experience play an important role in ease of training.
cows can be trained as adult animals without nose rings and similar devices
if they are acustomed to humans.

historically, cows were used on small farms where the limited ackerage couldnt feed extra oxen. they did everything oxen would do: haul supplies, hay and harvest, plow the fields. but because they are weaker than oxen, the carts and plows they pulled were smaller. but were never the less suited for a small household.

little is known in america that the cow, and not the ox, provided the main source of bovine traction in germany.

cows are by far the most vertisle farm animal known to man: they provide power for farm work, milk, they replace themselves with a calf, and can be consumed.

size: one important thing about cows is that a cow is a good deal smaller and lighter than an ox of the same breed. the bovine power output, stamina and endurance is greatly dependant on its normal size and weight. this means that the cows can pull less than an ox of the same breed. but don’t worry, a conditioned pair od shorthorn cows is still bigger and stronger than, say, jersey oxen.
you should let the cows on pasture as they move and walk outside, which helps them develop muscles and keeps them in good psychical shape.

cows should if trained properly be the ideal draft animal for a small farm.
if ¸the cow is lactating, it needs more food than an ox of the same size, and plenty of fresh water. also, if you work your cows regulary expect a lower milk yield.

here’s a link for a paper concerning specifically working cows. if you plan to have working cows, it is a must read:http://www.link.vet.ed.ac.uk/ctvm/Research/DAPR/Training%20Publications/Cows%20%20001/9202_Using_Cows.pdf

anyway i hope i could help! good luck!

Marko

[bivol]

another thing: a cow shouldn’t be worked a month prior and after calving. if you try, they won’t fit into the yoke, and will be too slow. it is essential to have a breeding calendar so calving falls when they are not needed

a new england neck yoke has 3xbow width width as the distance between animals. i don’t know if i’m competent to judge about this, but maybe the distance between animals should be greater, because they get wider when pregnant.

[Crabapple Farm]

As Bivol mentioned, expect milk production to drop in proportion to their exertion working. To some extent, you can up their feed proportionally, but their are some limits to an animals ability to process feed into energy for both working and producing milk. I know plenty of women who have nursed babies while farming (including my wife) – but it takes a lot of food and still takes a lot out of them.
Also, if you aren’t leaving the calves on the mothers, you may want to milk three times a day during early lactation, to reduce udder swelling and stretching, as a low hanging udder could interfere with a cow’s ability to work.
-Tevis

[JBurch]

Marko & Tevis, thanks for the replies and the link to the article. Very helpful.

I am thinking I will leave the calves on part time just so I can milk once per day. When I say I, I mean my children. If this happens it will be mostly their project with me helping as much as I can when my day job is not interfering.

My daughter did this with her goats last year and it worked pretty well. We have some aquantances here in Kansas that run a decent size dairy who leave the calves on the cow except for some amount of time prior to their once-per-day milking. I am sure you folks here on this forum know much more than I about this strategy so educate me as you see fit.

[Anne]

Hello!

I´m also training heifers. Cows were the most popular working animals in Germany. There were once more than two Million working cows. Especially small farms used to work with them. An old man, whos familiy used to work with cows told me, that they had five cows – and worked with all of them. He said, that most farmers trained several animals, to share the work. Most working cows worked only half the day.
Usually field tools which were designed for one horse, were used with two cows. And those which were designed for two, were used with three cows.
Farmers who used their milking cows to work calculated 10-15% less milk.
If a cow had to do very light work, the milk production increased. If she had to do light work, she had a little less milk, but the cream production wasn´t reduced. If she had to do hard work, milk and cream production were reduced.
If a cow had to do to much work the milk changed and got snowy while cooking.
If cow has worked in the morning, her next milk production (in the evening) will be normal, but there may be less milk, the next morning.
In general the advantage of their work was more valuable, than the disadvantage of a little less milk. As one farmer said: “You will find no one else, who brings in your fire wood for a liter of milk!”
The most common harness for working cows was the three pad collar.

Literatur: Heinrich Steinmetz: Kuhanspannung in Deutschland. Reprint von 1936. ISBN 3 – 9808675 – 1 – X. Starke Pferde Verlag D-32657 Lemgo 2006.

[mstacy]

My first team is a devon heifer and a bull. I’ve had them since October. They’re about 6 month old now.

This will become my breeding pair, but I’m taking the opportunity to begin my never-ending education in the drovers’ art. I’m sure Luke will become far too nasty for the yoke as testosterone poisoning taints his thinking, but I intend to keep working Magnolia as a single.

For now they are working quite well together. They pull a small sled to shuttle firewood to the house in the evenings. We’ll drag a christmas tree out of the woods here shortly. So if working a cow isn’t possible please don’t tell me:) I’m having boatloads of fun with my coed team. These two have taught me so much already and there’s worlds more to learn.

I also have a younger team of devon bulls that I will castrate shortly. I’ve only yoked those guys a few times now. Mostly halter training thus far.

Regards,

Matt Stacy
W. Topsham, VT

[fabian]

@Anne 3960 wrote:

The most common harness for working cows was the three pad collar.

That’s not correct.
The most common harness in germany was the forehead-yoke.
Steinmetz dreamed about that, what Anne wrote. 😉

Wolfgang

[JBurch]

I appreciate all the input-it has been helpful. Though, reading all these comments does incite the envy in me. I want to go out an get my heifers right now, but a few other things have to happen first–buildings and fences to build, money to accumulate. I do have a horse that needs trained to drive and others that just need ridden so maybe I can placate the envy by doing those things while I wait. Maybe I need to sell a couple horses to fund my cow procurement.

Also, I am a little bummed out that most of the oxen driving events are in the northeast. I have not found any activities on the internet in the central plains states. If someone here knows of events in the central US that include oxen driving, I would appreciate a heads up.

Again, thanks for taking time to answer the question.

JB

[mstacy]

@JBurch 3990 wrote:

Also, I am a little bummed out that most of the oxen driving events are in the northeast. I have not found any activities on the internet in the central plains states. If someone here knows of events in the central US that include oxen driving, I would appreciate a heads up.

JB

Tillers International and the Midwest Ox Drovers Association might be good resources to find events in your region.

[JBurch]

I am not seeing oxen events in the central US. Everyone here is stuck on horses and mules I guess.

Another question I have is how much power would a person get out of 2 Milking Shorthorn cows? Would they pull a plow for half a day? Generally, I am more concerned about not having enough work for them to do rather than over-working them. But if 2 cows can’t even pull a plow that may be a problem.

[Howie]

A pair of Shorthorn Cows could well plow 10 or 12 hours a day with a break for lunch if they are in condition.
Just remember that they are only about 75% the size of a pair of Shorthorn oxen so you should make some adjustment to the size of the plow.
If you work them very hard their milk production will suffer. It is hard to get milk and work out of the same pound of feed.
A good pair of working cows can be the most efficient item on the farm.

[JBurch]

I was watching some of the Youtube videos linked from this site and I noticed the soil being plowed acted very mellow (at least that is how I perceived it). MY soil is pretty stiff clay. Is there a chance plowing some types of soil (not rock) would be too difficult to be practical? I assume that if they did it 100 yeas ago with animals, I could do it now too. I have been adding lime and organic matter to my garden areas to loosen the soil up but it has to be plowed first to incorporate amendments. We are doing this now with shovels, muscle and sweat and dreaming of a better way some day.

[Crabapple Farm]

I would like to emphasize Howie’s phrase “if they are in condition” on the plowing question. Plowing is hard work, and if in general you don’t have enough work to keep them in good shape, then they will have a real hard time plowing up stiff clay once a year. If you can do some logging in the winter (firewood or whatnot) and spreading manure in the spring before plowing, so that you are working up to it, they will do much better.
However, I’ve seen some pretty small one-pony plows at auctions, so you can always match equipment to an animals abilities. Once you have the team trained and have worked with them, you’ll have a much better ability to assess what their abilities are.
We’ve got some heavy soil ourselves – I have found that moisture content makes a huge difference in how it feels and behaves with tillage. Between soup and bricks there’s a sweet spot.
We try to use a chisel plow and disk rather than the moldboard where possible, which doesn’t work for sod but works in an established garden.
-Tevis

[Howie]

I think that it is wrong to say a cow should not be worked for a month prior to having her calf or a month after. I think you should be careful not to work her too hard but she could well do light work up until a day or two before and go back a week after, if things go normal.
The last year I had my working cows they hauled a load of manure the day before May had her calf and went back to hauling it about ten days after. That year May raised five calves, and Dazy raised three.
May is the mother of my off ox, he is one those calves she raised that year.

[Author]

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