Methods to protect the chain from rubbing

[Andy Carson]

Thanks for the thoughts. I was able to get my field completely springtoothed over the last few days, and was trying to keep the boys off the chain as much as possible. I did notice that my nigh ox does know how to sidestep in turns, and seems comfortable with the concept. He gets on the chain when he doesn’t sidestep fast enough or far enough. It is easy for the turn to go too fast because my off ox tends not to sidestep in haw turns, but tends to angle in instead. This makes him turn faster than the nigh and puts the chain on the nigh. So, in my mind, I really have to keep my eye on the off ox here and make sure he doesn’t try to turn too fast. I ended up slowing the off ox and pushing him out on haw turns rather than slowing my nigh. Sometimes the off ox was even a bit further back than the nigh in haw turns, which actually has some advantages. Having the off further back not only slows the turn and gives the nigh more time to step over, but it also opens up more room behind the nigh for the chain to swing. I suppose in a perfect world they would be totally even, but having the off ox back in haw turns makes everything so much easier than having him forward. Now, I just have to try to keep the off ox’s butt in when turning haw… That been a tough one so far, as it is so easy for him to simply angle in. I suppose I need a hook on my goad?

As far as signalling, I ended up going with a tap on the front of the nigh and a tap on the back of the off to initiate the haw. This, along with my body position, seems to let them know we are going to turn haw. Then I tap in various other places (front of off, rear of nigh, flank of off) as needed to manage thier body positions after the turnin initiated. Although is it somewhat counterintuitive to tap the front of the nigh and the rear of the off when you are going to do a tight turn, they are very used to this being the “haw” command and tapping the other places that I use to micromanage the turn tended to be confusing until the turn was initiated.

Still need to practice sidestepping on “gee” a lot. My off ox is a bad sidestepper moving out. I tend to not do this much because doing fieldwork with “gee” commands makes me walk in the tilled soil. Whaa! 😮

[Kevin Cunningham]

@Countymouse 33917 wrote:

Still need to practice sidestepping on “gee” a lot. My off ox is a bad sidestepper moving out. I tend to not do this much because doing fieldwork with “gee” commands makes me walk in the tilled soil. Whaa! 😮

This is probably why haw seems to be a more common and an easier turn. I wonder how this translates into the tractor era because most tractors also turn more to the left because of off set discs. I have gotten on the seat of some tractors that have some brake side completely worn down. It is not always the left side though.

I have trouble with the gee turn on my steers so I am always looking for time to turn that way for practice. I also have noticed some improvement since working both singly in the halter. It used to be such that my off steer would step over the chain on a turn, and not even that sharp of a turn. Now he doesn’t do that but he will still rub a bit more than the nigh steer. I think I am going to work on this a lot more now I know how much of an issue it can be later.

[Tim Harrigan]

I think the training is just an issue of going slow, and stop them mid-turn to get them set-in or out, hold one back, whatever to demonstrate what you expect. It is a bit of a challenge for them, the ox on the outside of the turn always has a tendency to just want to come around, so you have to slow him down and keep him set it. Andy, you do not need a hook, I just use the lash to reach over and tap him on the far side to bring him in. In the gee turn (I say gee-off, haw-to for a tight haw) it is probably easiest when training to stand right in front of them and take away their space to come forward, particularly the nigh ox needs to stay back.

It is easier doing haw turns. What I did early on for conditioning and training was to load a stoneboat and come down the N-S length of the pasture going E-W side-to-side. I would line up on a fence post and pull to one side of the pasture, turn 90 deg haw, go about 3 posts (30 ft) and another 90 haw, pull to the other side of the pasture, 90 deg gee, 30 ft and 90 deg gee, etc. If you do that a few times you work on both turns equally, and they are actually working and not getting bored turning, turning, turning in one small area. It seemed to work. I think the thing is do not hurry them, or let them hurry through the turn. Take whatever time it needs to show them what you want. And be consistent. They will be as sloppy at this as you let them, so you decide what you want.

Vicki is right, when training a younger team it is probably better to use a pole than a chain. They will have less tendency to step over it, and if you lay it up on the sled or whatever you have it teaches them to step over a pole for hitching. Useful for later wagon or cart work.

[Tim Harrigan]

@Countymouse 33917 wrote:

Still need to practice sidestepping on “gee” a lot. My off ox is a bad sidestepper moving out. I tend to not do this much because doing fieldwork with “gee” commands makes me walk in the tilled soil. Whaa! 😮

Andy, you just need to get some of those bear paw-type snow shoes. Great for working your team in tilled ground 😎

[dominiquer60]

Except for them turning easier to the left, your team and mine sound so similar on many levels. Until the last few months I was ignorant to the fact that they should not touch when turning and since then I have not had the enough time or conditions to practice nearly as much as I would like to. I use a goad with a lash and find it rather nice to use, I have used a beef show stick before (I showed my roan in beef and dairy showmanship at the fair) and it works but I can reach so much further with my lash. One thing that I like to do it use obstacles set them up for success, I will ask them to side step with a tree or pile of logs in front of them for example. Just give them a situation where it is easy for them to choose the correct response. I work on turning when I can and they are slowly getting better, but slowly because I have not been able to work them consistently enough. They are what we put into them.

Erika

[Carl Russell]

@Countymouse 33917 wrote:

……. I really have to keep my eye on the off ox here and make sure he doesn’t try to turn too fast….

…. I suppose in a perfect world they would be totally even, but having the off ox back in haw turns makes everything so much easier than having him forward. ……..

Drive the off ox. Your nigh steer will follow you, and should be really easy to direct (because you are close). When you get the off ox to pay attention to you, it will be easy to get the nigh one to come along with you.

One of the reasons I didn’t like working my steers with a head yoke was because they were locked into working perfectly even with each other at all times. The beauty of the neck yoke is that the steers can be somewhat off-line from the yoke, and they can use it somewhat like an evener. So I think that the outside steer will actually learn to lag a bit when turning under load to keep the power going forward.

Carl

[Droverone]

That the head yoke allows the “EVEN” distribution of the force of the load, equalizing the power, and not as easily allowing one animal to get the “Advantage” over the other that can easily discourage one animal from giving his all to move a tricky load. I always wonder if people who like neck yokes carry water buckets on their forceps. It seems much more logical to me to use the muscle to exert the force in the direction it was developed to be used instead of pressing into it and exerting undue strain against it. A simple study of the direction of the force exerted would show that by one animal lagging in a neck yoke would move the direction of the force laterally into the side of the neck, possible interfering with the point of the shoulder or against the vertebrae, neither of which would allow the animal to be able to exert the most force to keep the load moving, forward or otherwise.

[Carl Russell]

@Droverone 33926 wrote:

…… A simple study of the direction of the force exerted would show that by one animal lagging in a neck yoke would move the direction of the force laterally into the side of the neck, possible interfering with the point of the shoulder or against the vertebrae, neither of which would allow the animal to be able to exert the most force to keep the load moving, forward or otherwise.

I meant lagging in terms of forming an arc…… slowing down the outside animal so that they maintain the yoke perpendicular to the forward motion rather than slicing across it in an arc. The arc is preferable to the animals because the action requires less effort, so the initiative of the teamster is to keep them moving squarely forward while crossing over.

I used a head yoke on my Holsteins for over a year and while I found many of the physical properties of the design to be excellent, it was more restrictive than the neck yoke. The long slender necks (compared to beef crosses most commonly headyoked) of the Holsteins worked to their disadvantage. For my purposes allowing the steers to have independent head movement and getting the yoke back near the shoulder gave them much better applied power, especially when pulling heavy loads on turns.

Carl

[oxman]

Commonly used here is a thick, but soft plastic pipe that chain passes through. It is durable, easy on legs, yet flexible for storing.

Carmen

[Author]

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