Ox Yokes for Animal Comfort, Uganda

[Tim Harrigan]

In Uganda the training for the tillage service providers included making improved ox yokes based on the North American neck yoke tradition.  Here is a short video, it was exciting to see how hard they worked on these and they did a great job.

 

[Does’ Leap]

Hi Tim:

Thanks for posting the video.  Looks like a great program.  Keep up the good work.

George

[bivol]

improving yoke design on HUMPED cattle is always a bit trickly. ofcourse i salute their efforts, and new yoke is obviously better then the old design.

but, because the anatomy of humped oxen and their potential load bearing surface is different of that of humpless breeds, i’d maybe suggest tinkering in a direction that  would, aside from the newly made changes, also try to exploit the hump area.

i’ve tinkered with a similar questions a long time ago and came up with a “saddle-seat” type of yoke, as the drawing shows.

it’s meant to be made out of a block of wood, as showed in pic. it would self-level itself and be worked like a harness, with 2 ropes ans a singletree.

the other yoke design (the one in top right) is actually very similar to bosnian type of yokes, and i believe this type of yoke could also prove to work properly, as it has a rounded neck seat.

aside of these suggestions,  i think changes already made on the field are significant!

Marko

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[fabian]

Hey, Marko, nice to see that you are still alive !

[dominiquer60]

Great drawings Marko, it was very easy to understand your ideas that way.  It would be neat to see how this design works in the field.

[monsterfi]

Great video, Tim. The bend at the bottom of the bows, is that left hollow? Am I right in assuming the bows are fashioned out of a type of ‘poly’ pipe, then the ‘legs’ are filled with prepared timber sticks? Very interesting! Thanks.

[Tim Harrigan]

Yes, the bottom is hollow, the sand is removed after bending. The straight, vertical sections are then reinforced with wood. Works great. I many areas it is difficult to find timber that is suitable for bending into bows. This makes it much easier.

[monsterfi]

Thanks Tim. In Australia, we use steel bar, but I dont like that idea so much.. it gets cold and hot and is pretty expensive. I love the pvc pipe idea.

[Author]

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