Shoes, Shoeing, Shoer, or no shoes at all

[Anonymous]

Hi Folks,
I am the uber new guy on this forum and had some questions that I hope to answer before I venture into a world of frustration and confusion.

A little background. I currently own no working steers or oxen. I am a small farmer with a big interest in doing things midfully and with a minimal impact on the worls and my wallet. I have been interested in working steer and oxen since I was a child listening to stories from my grand and great grand parents of times gone by and how they did it in the “old days’. No motor tractor or horse in site in the woods of maine 75 – 100 years ago.

I am currently actively seeking a new born matched pair of bull calfs to start my Oxen adventure. I am confident that I know enough to make some small mistakes and still recover and nobody gets hurt in the mean time. I have been doing a significant amount of reading though and am concerned about the feet of my future steer(s?)/ Oxen.

I am specifically looking for info about shoeing steer. Where is a good place to procure shoes? How do I find a shoer/ farrier type person with the skills and tools to take care of ox feet? Can I get trained to do this myself? Is shoeing your steer a common practice and what are the risks for not doing it? Is it as bad as it sounds by reading the available material? I gotta say having to build a sling to hold the critter up while I pick away at it’s feet doesn’t sound all that inviting. Maybe when it is little but a ton or so of live beef weight hanging precariously from a seat belt on a wooden beam… Scary.

Any help I can get would be appreciated. Keep in mind I am in Maine…in the woods…

[Baystatetom]

Work with your future calves, make them pick up all four feet and hold them up. Learning to this when they are small is a big help when they are big. If you pull up on or squeeze their dew claws together they will pick it right up. I don’t think most steers need shoeing unless you are working on ice a lot.
~Tom

[bivol]

Libery, welcome!

shoeing is an itchy matter becasue there aren’t many people who can do it even up in Maine, where oxen are numerous- shoeing cattle is completely different than shoeing horses, so much is clear. it’s a bit more complicated because the hoof wall, through wtich the nails are inserted, is thinnner than in horses, and if no done properly, it can badly cripple the oxen. shoeing can be taught by practising on hooves got from the butcher, as said in “Oxen; the teamster’s manual”.

generally, to shoe or not to shoe are questions dependant on the breed of steers you’re using and on what, and where, they will be doing their work.

things to mind:

1. hoof color
first thing you have to watch out for are the hooves. the darker the hooves, the tougher they are and the slower they wear down. originally wild cattle were all dark-hooved, but some modern commercial breeds (holstein, simmentaller) will be light hooved. others will have darker hooves (jersey, beefs).

this goes together with size of cattle. and the bigger the cattle, the more pressure there is on the hooves, and thus faster hooves wear down, especially if they’re light coloured, meaning softer.

2. surroundings
generally, oxen doing light farm work don’t require shoes. they require them in case they work hard, or work on stony ground, gravel, or asphalt, whch wears down the darkest of hooves. doing forestry work is also one instance where hooves are desired, because of traction and all matter of things oxen stand on in the woods.

3. amount of work
for moderate and light work oxen usually dont need to be shod. oxen with dark hooves doing farm work on non-rocky soil dont require shoes. however, this is not without any exceptions, always look at the hooves, and if they look worn down, better give them rest than wear hooves to the nerves.

all that said, i think you’re lucky because you don’t have your oxen yet. this means you can pick breeds that are less trouble concerning hooves and temper.

what i’d look for are medium sized animals with dark hooves, easy tempers and a reasonable price tag. they’re powerful enough to do most farm work, including plowing, and their sizer doesn’t stress their dark hooves. also, being docile, they wont overwhelm you while you’re learning.

brown swiss – a good breed, managable, big and strong, but slow (generally!). either way, temper is inherited form parents, so in picking calves it pays off to have some info on parent’s temper.

dutch belted are fine steers too i guess, if the price tag is OK. they’re also uniform in color, and a heritage breed in USA.

ayrshire are fine, too, but they can be somewhat nervous, otherwise OK in size and hoof color…

breeds… if i were you, i’d go for a Brown Swiss x jersey cross if i could get a hold of the calves.

[CharlyBonifaz]

my cattle are taught to pick up their feet – not only for shoeing, but also for checking for stones, wounds or letting them step in/out of the traces etc.
they are only shod during the winter, hate the idea of having them slip on ice and loose them that way
but my cattle are not on a full time job so as Bivol says: it depends…..

[dominiquer60]

I am new to this but am already training my second team. My first team was a pair of beef calves that were bottle fed, but did not start any training until they were 6 months old. I could pick all of their feet up, but could only trim (rasp) their front feet with little trouble. I used a rope attached around their necks to tie the foot so that they could not kick to trim the back feet. This method worked for all involved but was not ideal.

I started training my second team (Milking Shorthorns) at 6 weeks of age and they are wonderful about their feet. I can pick any of them up at anytime with no kicking and can easily take a rasp to their feet while they standing resting in their field. They are very comfortable with me handling feet, and though they are only a year old I anticipate caring for their feet in the same manner for a long time. I don’t plan on shoeing them as there is no one around that does such in these parts and I don’t see the need to.

Bivol’s comments on hoof color do seem to ring true. I have a roan and red, half brothers out of a mother daughter pair of dams. The roan has dark reddish feet and they seem to be good sound feet, he travels well on rough surfaces. The red has four white socks and white hooves, they seem to chip easier and he is awful tender on the rough parts of our drive and dirt road, get him on grass and he walks sound as a pound. It makes for slow traveling on gravel, but once we get real to work on sod or soil he is fine. This experience alone would lead me to choose a darker hooved team over a team with white feet in the future, or at least have all feet in the team match, it gets frustrating at times with a faster and slower steer, speed one up slow the other down.

Good luck and enjoy that first team you’ll never have another like it,

[Baystatetom]

In my experience a team won’t have the strength or stamina to work hard enough long enough to wear down their hoofs until they are a few years old, so you have plenty time to think about. Way back when oxen pulled wagons across the country they used to put leather boots on them. It kept their hoofs from wearing down and was easier to deal with on the trail then shoes. I never tried such a thing but I sure its possible.
~Tom

[Tim Harrigan]

I am not sure what to make of this hoof color and hardness issue. I know it has been widely stated that light color hooves are softer or wear faster than black, but that seems to me to be a pigment issue and I have not seen any explanation of how pigment could affect hardness. Also, there are tests that can be done to measure hardness but I have never seen results of those tests applied to horses or cattle. I have a steer with 1 white and 3 black feet, but I have not seen any difference in wear that I could link to color. I see things that seem to be more common with front versus back feet and vice versa. When I rasp their feet I can see how the white could be perceived to be softer because the white filings show up better on the ground than the black, so it looks like it is filing faster, but I have to file just as much on the black feet to get them in shape. Also, with my steer, I have never had a problem with his white foot, but have had with the black. So I would just like to see some proof or convincing reason why white feet are softer than dark feet.

[Anonymous]

Wow! Quick response with some fantastic information. You guys are great.

Bivol, I currently have 3 bovine critters on my farm. 1 Jersey x Holstein bound for the freezer, I thought about keeping him as a single working steer but once I learned about confirmation and how to pick my calf I decided to put him in the freezer. His feet point east and west and he has a funky sort of gate overall, I think he would be more trouble than he is worth when it comes to foot health. Dark Hooves but they point outbound instead of straight ahead.

I also have one Straight Jersey Heifer, just turned 1 year, plan to use her as a milker, she too has outbound pointed feet. Great temprement and my children love her.

And the star of the show, in cattle that is, is my Brown Swiss x Jersey bull. He is just shy of a year old. He has a nice confirmation but I do not plan to work him, not as a in the sense you would work a castrated animal anyway. One drawback is that he has somehow gotten a polled gene and has no horns. Him polled may not make a difference from a training perspective but I think he is better suited to herd improvement for some of the local dairies and small time beef guys in my area. Most don’t keep bulls around because of the added cost. I am a hobby cattleman and look at this as an adventure not as a commercial venture necessarily. I get a little beef. I get a little milk and know where it comes from while having fun in the process.

Long story short, I think I might have the potential to make atleast a single working steer right on the farm with the heifer and the bull I currently have. The only problem is that I really want to get started on this sooner rather than later and it could be quite a while before I get any results from Blue and Olive, they are both too young right now…and, I could wind up with a heifer.

Thoughts?

Tim, I am also curious as to how coloration makes a difference. Is it a characteristic not nesessarily of color but of family tree and the color has become corolated with hoof quality over time or what? I am so green to this that I don’t know any answers but am always seeking to understand things that don’t make sense.

[dominiquer60]

One added note on foot wear is that concrete can make a heck of a difference with how fast and in what way hooves wear.

I am not completely convinced that foot color has everything to do with soft feet, genetics surely play a role as well. My mother has soft teeth and I seemed to have gotten that from her (one started falling apart and led to my first crown before I was 30). My steers are 3/4 related and have 2 very different sets of feet. I don’t notice any difference in hardness when I am rasping, but the steer with white feet has a lot more chipping on his feet compared to the red footed brother, and is more sensitive about walking on rough ground. Maybe the white footed steer just got some bad genetics from the one unrelated sire, maybe it is because he lack pigment in his feet. I can’t say for sure.

I did care for a horse one summer and he had two dark feet and two white feet, one each up front and in back, shoes on the front and barefoot in the back. The foot that wore funny and was always giving us problems was the rear white foot.

Although white genetics are naturally occurring there is something about too much white that leads me to see it as a weakness at times. Variegated plants for example are less hardy than their green counterparts, they lack the vigor to thrive as well and seem to be less cold hardy (in general). The white gene in horses is referred to as the lethal white gene because albino horse die at birth. Australian shepherds with too much white (and Dalmations) can often be blind and or def. There is also a trend that some notice that horses with watch eyes and or too many white markings have a tendency to be a little screwy at times. Holstein breeders that I know tend to strive for darker show animals, not just because they clean easier, but they seem to handle and show easier (so I have been told). White dear and white squirrels make easy target in the non-winter months and don’t tend to live as long in captivity. And then there are humans, though not white, it is said that all people with light (blue) eyes can be traced back to one probably blond inbred person from northern Europe, we have coped well but our trait is of a frowned upon origin:)

I am sure that genetics play a role in poor feet in cattle and horses these days, just look what we have done the the feet of Standardbreds for example, while breeding for fast, having good feet was left out of the equation. However it is my opinion from years of observation that though white is naturally occurring, there tends to be weaknesses associated with it.

Liberty, if you want to get into steers, Holstein calves are an easy find, or find a pair of a breed that you prefer. I started with a beef steer and heifer because that was what was available here on the farm. It is good to think about things first, but you won’t get doing it until you jump in:) Have fun with it!

[mitchmaine]

anuthuh mainuh, glad to hear it. it may be a small world, but there is still probably 200 miles between us. otherwise, i’d hook you up withdozens of steer and ox men down here that love to sit for hours and bullshit about their cattle. i could ask around and see if they know anyone down your way. good luck with your farm, is it saltwater? mitch

[bivol]

Liberty, your remarks on bad points of your cattle are good! – no point investing in an animal that doesn’t have the constitution to work!
if there’s no hurry, than you can pretty much tailor your oxen to your desires… only, do it on more cows, like at least three, cause it’s 50% chance calves will be female.
that jersey X BS bull seems promising, just when mating him to a cow, make sure she’s dominant in horns – polled is usually recessive, so if you mate him to a horned cow, you oughta get a horned calf. but gene strength it’s also breed dependant.
what breed do you plan to cross him to, to get calves?
an idea: when thats bull has served his purpose in a few years, you could castrate him and train him too… you should only profit form his stronger constitution. there are lots of cattle being worked both polled and singly in yoke, and there’s nothing wrong with it – you just need britchen.

if tailoring calves, mind that 1% ox calves that cant be trained – they either show open resentment to teamsters, or to other calves. oxen have prefrences, like we do, and sometimes teamed up calves cant stand each other’s guts. you can see that by them being as far as possible in any situation they can be.
when looking for calves, see how they get along, and are they reasonably inquisitive/friendly to you. that goes for calves born at your place as well as for those bought.

on hoof colour….
i believe there are differences. my family back in serbia, who keep cows, say that they like light hooves because cows trimm their own hooves while kicking the concrete, standing in the stall.

there is also another issue: how the hooves preform in wet weather – i know dark hooves are more likely to crack in dry and hot weather, while lighter hooves dont crack in hot weather. but when humid, lighter hooves are softer and and wear down faster. tis what i know on the subject.

holsteins…. they grow big, and i dont know where i red it, but they can have have a pretty short life span (10 years instead of 15) and have to be put down because of hoof problems. this is what i heard. what do other members say?

if shod, there are no problems even for light hooves. in serbia and whole of balkans simmenthal oxen make the bulk of working cattle – they’re big, strong and docile, but have to be shod for hard work.

this hoof matter is gettin a bit “serious”, so reckon i’ll head out and get an answer from my physiology professor, so we know for sure! 🙂

[Anonymous]

Bivol, Holstein is the easiest option for me here. There are several local organic dairies that have a dense population of Holstein calves to be had for next to no money. They all sell their bull calves off to local small time meat growers, like me. They are usually only a day old or so. I think I am going to start with a set of Jerseys though…. I know there are some sighs in the group at that. I am looking seriously at Jerseys for multiple reasons.

1 they are the second most prevalent critter available in my area. Making them pretty reasonably priced like Holsteins.

2 they are a smaller more compact critter, that I think is important when my children are potentially going to be working with them as well.

3 I got the opportunity to look at both Holstein and jersey cows on mixed terrain on my way home from work today… The consensus I came up with is that the Jersey’s feet looked less screwed up than the Holstein. I looked at as many as I could get to come to the fence to greet me. I got a look at a large variety of feet – all ages. Not saying that the jersey’s feet looked good but they were definitely more consistently not in poor shape. If that makes any sense…

4 I am not planning on moving mountains only light farming and some very light logging. As much fun as I think it would be to go compete in an open class polling competition with a couple of freight trains, I really don’t need it.

5 smaller animal means that they are likely to eat less in the course of a day, very important with our current corn based America debacle. Will that ever end I wonder?

6 they are “pretty” or so Ive been told by folks who are into that sort of thing. They’re always stopping and commenting on my Olive’s beauty. It’s easier to find a matching set, from a color perspective, from a breed that is pretty darn color consistent.

I may be convinced otherwise if you all would like to talk me out of that decision but I think I have made my mind up.

Mitch, I live right near the salt water, stones through away, but not right on it. You may have heard of the Tide Mill Organic Dairy, they are all over the periodicals, I am about 19 miles from their operation. You can look them up to get an idea of the terrain here, they have a web site. And I would love to know of any local fat chewers in my area that could help me out with my searches. As it is right now I think if I had a team it would be the only one in the WC.

[Baystatetom]

I have had holstiens, herfordXholstiens, milking shorthorns, jerseys and ashyres. I now have shorthornXholstien and plan on getting my boy a pair of normandy in the spring. Milking shorthorn have been the most common oxen breed in New England for 150 years. No matter what anybody else says get what you like, end of story. I had a pair of jersey for my kids and found them to be the smartest easiest to train team I ever worked with, plenty of others will tell you the opposite. No matter what, you will have fun. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Tom, Thanks I have heard many cons about temperament with Jerseys but from all of them I have met I can’t see it. They seem smart and friendly in the same go. I am going to have fun no matter what but I am quite certain it will be with a pair of Jerseys this time around.

[dominiquer60]

Jersey can work just fine, but don’t underestimate the potential best of both worlds and hybrid vigor if you come across a pair of jersey x holstein bull calves. Crossbreds can make wonderful oxen too!

[Author]

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