Oxen with my Cattle Herd

[Nat(wasIxy)]

That’s not really about keeping oxen with other cattle though is it, that’s just about relative sizes of cattle – you wouldn’t put a 2000lb bull out to breed those lowlines, would you? Cows also mount each other too, so would you keep a chianina cow with those lowlines? I don’t want oldways to get the wrong impression here.

[Howie]

:eek:If you have a good herd of cattle you should have good pasture and good hay in the winter.
Give a pair of steers like Rod’s free choice of this and in 3or 4 years they will weigh 2800 to 3000 lbs and mabe more. Their legs are not built for that much weight to be trying to mount a cow.
An ox fed this way, and under worked, will easy grow to weigh half again what he would if he was a busy breeding bull.
If you were to start a pair of Holstien calves now it would be at least 3 or 4 years before they might give trouble in the herd.:eek:

[Nat(wasIxy)]

Again though, these issues are not about keeping oxen with other cattle – they will even be mounting each other, unless you are proposing keeping them singly? That’s just part of cattle behaviour. And it’s up to you to decide if what the others are eating is suitable for your oxen – it’s not like it’s a concrete rule ‘no oxen with beef herds’ – depends on the situation.

[Vicki]

Howie is making an important point about adult oxen and beef herds. I have Dexter oxen and Hereford beef cows, and often a young bull with the cows. I must manage the oxen separate from the beef, in order to limit feed to the dexters and in order to keep the dexters from mounting cows in heat and from beating up a young bull.

When the cows are bred and no bull with them, I can mix them in a pasture, no problems of fighting or anything. But I need separate paddocks in the long term.

My oxen will try to dominate or fight with a bull. Maybe some oxen are less dominant by nature.

[Nat(wasIxy)]

@Vicki 15402 wrote:

Maybe some oxen are less dominant by nature.

Undoubtedly, like I say we have steers of all breeds up to 4yrs and beyond, and the bulls are unquestionably always top dog – never have a problem. Only with the ones that keep their testicles for some reason! 😀

[dominiquer60]

Right now our main herd is out in a winter lot where we can feed them easily. My calves are in the barn with a few other youngsters that are getting fed up to weight and a couple cow calf pairs that were not planned for late fall. They spend nice days out in the barnyard and get turnout out to the water hole twice a day. Already the trained animals are a problem, they haven’t nursed since they were about 2 months and they were weaned from a bottle at 5-6 months, but now at 9 months of age they have taken up the habit of nursing off the red cow, the black cow won’t have them. I am not in favor of allowing this to happen, but I am 1500 miles away and they are not my animals.

When I do get a pair of steers of my own in the future, I will certainly have them separate from the beef heard and preferably out in a shed away from the dark and dismal cow barn. I will have put too much effort into my team to risk harm to them and I like the heard bulls to much to bother them. The heard is not mine and I wouldn’t want to risk any cattle getting hurt. I am sure that there are exceptions to everything, but keeping oxen separate appears to be my best bet for so many reasons.

That is what farming is all about, finding what works best for you, and that is why no two farms are ever alike.

Erika

[reddox]

It can be done and have done it over the years. All of the replies are very true to the different problems you could have. However I would not suggest putting them in with highlanders. My experience with this breed leads me to believe that their strong herd and survival instincts might have a negative effect on the calm, trusting traits you want with handy “easy to catch oxen” in the pasture. My apologies to the highland advocates out there. It’s only my opinion. I’m sure some people can make it work.

[Tim Harrigan]

Until steers are two, maybe three years old they can be fed like a beef herd on pasture with free access to feed. After that their nutritional needs are much less and if they have unlimiited access to good pasture they will get fat. Once they are four and older the biggest challenge is to keep them from getting fat on pasture, even with restricted access. If mature steers have free access to good pasture they will eat 3-5 times what they need and never look back. To me, this is a bigger challenge than just letting them run together.

[Author]

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