Oxen question

[Rod]

I have a pair of 14 month old Durhams which were trained pretty well by a 4-H kid from whom I bought them a month or so ago. The two animal are well matched in size but quite diffrent in personality (temperament). Bo, the nigh steer is very compliant and has a calm personality. If they were both like him life would be a dream ( in the working steer area anyway). Luke the off steer is the opposite, always giving me the horn routine, tried a couple of half hearted kicks at me, is constantly distracted when we walk, pushes ahead when we are heading barnwise and sometimes stops when going the other way, he wanders off track if he sees something intresting beside the road, is the first to break a stand, or to initate a runway, etc. In short is is acting imature at best or at worst he is in the wrong profession.

My question is, should he grow out of it as he get older, is he still testing me, or should I think about replacing him? Could the problem be me?

That leads to a second question and that is how hard is it to replace an ox in a yoke with a strange ox?

[Carl Russell]

Rod, there is very often difficulty with the off steer, because he doesn’t get the same attention and the nigh. Take him back out by himself in the halter and develop a relationship with him. If he’s bully, don’t take it for one second. It’s his nature, but do you want to fight, or work? He needs to know fighting is going nowhere for him.

However, in a team I liked having the off steer a little hotter than the nigh one. You can always get to the nigh one if you need to so drive the off steer. Pay more attention to him, and let him know your talking to HIM. You might like a whip with a long lash on it. I do. Carl

[Oxen Acres Farm]

Rod as I am a new teamster my self I have been through what you are going through. When I would work my animals and would walk by the gate to get into the barnyard they would always want to go in and I would have to fight them to walk by. So what I did was walk them up to the gate and make them stand there for a while then back them up and go for a little walk come back and do the same thing over again till they get the hint.
My off steer Frank when we walk does the same thing when it comes to wandering, he tries always to eat something growing on the side of the road and it drives me absolutely nuts. The only thing I try to do is stay on him with my goad stick.
When he horns you as mine do time to time I just smack them in the nose and if that don’t work get a bigger stick until he listens and learns not to be mean.

[Howie]

Frank is not trained to do what you tell him but to do what the other steer tells him. Put him in a single yoke and put him to work.
It is no problem to put different cattle together if they are both trained to respond to the driver.

[Carl Russell]

Even though we call them a team, it is still two individual animals, and you. You have to drive each animal. When you move quickly to the yoke, because this is what you see everyone doing, sometimes one steer, often the off one, will begin to get independent. Trying to remedy the situation while yoked as a team can lead to frustration. Go back to basics and work on instilling the behavior you want. There is nothing wrong with working on the basics, it is what will guide success later on. Carl

[Paul T. Ferrari]

Rod,

I’ve had similar experiences with my off steers. They seem to always be quick to mess around. I think your relationship with the off ox is a different one than what you share with the nigh. What has worked for me is working the off steer single. It would be great if you had a single yoke to really work him. However, I’ve always just used a halter and a goad to take my off steer on excursions. This will deepen the relationship between you two. In a sense, you will make him into a nigh steer if you spend enough time with him.

I did have a steer who was a real SOB. I ended up beefing him. Behaviorally he was challenging, agressive, and too fast for my nigh steer. He also didn’t have good conformation and would loose his wind easily. These traits put him in the freezer. However, if you have a well built animal that is mated and matched to your nigh steer, I would try my best to work out the kinks with him. Chances are you would end up with the same traits in a new team, and possibly to a greater degree!

I’ve found that all teams have a quiet, even tempered steer and one that’s more challenging. We like to fantasize about how wonderful our team would be if we could just make a carbon copy of the “good” one and turn the “bad” one into beef patties. However, if you can make your challenging steer into a good, well behaved worker, your skills as a trainer will deepen immensely.

I say create a plan for going over the basics with your off steer. Set some goals for his training and commit to a training schedule for him. I think you’ll find that he’ll come around if you give him some one-on-one work that reinforces the basic principles of training. Really work on building a solid relationship with him. Then you’ll have a great team that you made yourself and the skills to work with challenging calves and steers.

[Paul T. Ferrari]

Rod,

I’ve had similar experiences with my off steers. They seem to always be quick to mess around. I think your relationship with the off ox is a different one than what you share with the nigh. What has worked for me is working the off steer single. It would be great if you had a single yoke to really work him. However, I’ve always just used a halter and a goad to take my off steer on excursions. This will deepen the relationship between you two. In a sense, you will make him into a nigh steer if you spend enough time with him.

I did have a steer who was a real SOB. I ended up beefing him. Behaviorally he was challenging, agressive, and too fast for my nigh steer. He also didn’t have good conformation and would loose his wind easily. These traits put him in the freezer. However, if you have a well built animal that is mated and matched to your nigh steer, I would try my best to work out the kinks with him. Chances are you would end up with the same traits in a new team, and possibly to a greater degree!

I’ve found that all teams have a quiet, even tempered steer and one that’s more challenging. We like to fantasize about how wonderful our team would be if we could just make a carbon copy of the “good” one and turn the “bad” one into beef patties. However, if you can make your challenging steer into a good, well behaved worker, your skills as a trainer will deepen immensely.

I say create a plan for going over the basics with your off steer. Set some goals for his training and commit to a training schedule for him. I think you’ll find that he’ll come around if you give him some one-on-one work that reinforces the basic principles of training. Really work on building a solid relationship with him Then you’ll have a great team that you made yourself and the skills to work with challenging calves and steers.

[cxb100]

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