Shoes, Shoeing, Shoer, or no shoes at all

[bivol]

Lib,
your points on Jerseys are on spot. if you dont need anything bigger, go for jerseys.
not to mention jerseys are very unlikely to have nearly as much hoof issues as holsteins would…
so i wont talk you out of it.
however, since jerseys are reputed to be wilder than holsteins, and being your first oxen, i suggest that you pick your calves carefully and have good feedback on temper of their parents.

Erika’s right, it is a good idea to keep an eye out for a good pair of cross-breds. medium-sized animals were once a standard on farms who used oxen as a power source. i guess medium size is the best all-rounder in oxen. best ration of feeding and work capacity.

3. there is a good reason. holstein is a race car of diary breeds, and for this reason it’s metabolism is really biologically pushed to the limit for top milk production. they’re constantly walking on the edge, on one side top production, on other metabolic disturbances…
jerseys are not so much selected, and their metabolism doesnt suffer that much. maybe that’s why…

with children, it’s safety first, as we all know. and safety in oxen isnt connected to body size, but to tameness. even the smallest of steers with “wrong” temper can distaste children and adults off having bussiness with oxen, if not (God forbid!) hurt them. on the other hand, even 7-y.o.’s can handle docile cattle towering above them, like them huge holstein-chianina crosses in 4-H.

just as in your first car, get a cheap, good one you like to start with. and maybe your oxen will save the day one day, having capable draft animals may provide a significant edge to farmers, if the economic situation continues to go this way.

[Baystatetom]

My jerseys were friendly to a fault. You don’t want a 1000 pound steer thinking he can cuddle anytime he wants. And their hoofs weren’t that good. However my 3 year old could yell out commands I could barely understand and they would listen to him. I prefer a beef/dairy mix but, like I said before just pick what you like and you will be the happiest. Pick what somebody else likes and you might be thinking “if only I got those jerseys”.
~Tom

[mitchmaine]

hi tony,
in a couple months, mofga is doing their annual low impact forestry workshop in unity. its a great place to swap ideas with others with similar interests. jim hawkes demonstrates steers up there. he is a great man, and you should meet and talk with him. drive his steers. swap yarns.
i know sam from tide mill farm. a friend took him to ohio a few years back to get his grey team. i have friends in whitneyville and cutler too and love washington county. i still think you folk see the sun rise first. who hangs out on top of katahdin at four in the morning anyway?

best wishes, mitch

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the awesome feedback and advice everyone. I went by the farm where the bull calves will likely come from. Mostly Jersey with some select jersey crosses. Nobody is due to calf right off but when they do I will be looking to select from that grouping I think. Dames are all on site and the bulls are normally AI. Doesn’t give me much option for sire’s temperament but i can at least check out the dames. I will start a new thread when I make my selection with pics of course.

Mitch,
I actually printed the registration form for the LIF event at the MOFGA woodlot. Unfortunately I probably won’t end up going this fall but would love to get to one soon. Our farm is still in its infancy, toddler really, and I am an integral part of the process. Until we are steaming ahead in a steady pace, and I have trustworthy farm hands to count on, 2-4 days away is too long. Better luck next time I guess.

Sunrise on Katahdin isn’t worth freezing your ass off all night waiting for… I promise.

[Vicki]

I’ve trained three jerseys and they were smart and cooperative. Can be friendly to a fault as Tom said. Early lessons in “manners” and respecting your space are real important with bottle calves, especially with Jerseys which seem to want to be joined to your hip. My Jerseys tend to holler for human contact; moo if they catch a glimpse or a sound of you, which can be annoying. I had a shorthorn who did the same, though.

Get calves YOU like. I think Jerseys can be fine for what you want to do.

I believe the polled gene is dominant over the horned gene. So to get a chance of horned offspring, parents needs to have at least one recessive horned gene.

[Nat(wasIxy)]

I’m glad the hoof colour thing has come up as I’ve never seen evidence for white hooves being ‘weaker’ or wearing faster, and in the horse world it’s beginning to be talked about as something of an old wives’ tale…

Mine are trained to pick up their hooves – they do it, no problem. I dunno why they didn’t in the past, probably because they were breaking older steers in a hurry and trying to train an older steer to pick its feet up…I wouldn’t want to do it!!

Jerseys are very good indeed – my Jersey is the only ox I’ve kept as he has just been head and shoulders above the rest in terms of speed, willingness and all the rest of it. I always worked my other oxen with a stick – with Ted I’ve never used one, he responds to me alone so well. I don’t even have to have him on a rope, he will follow me in from the fields, away from grass and the herd, loose. Our milk cows and heifers are super easy to work with too, all will happily walk on a halter, much more biddable than the dexters.

However, I’ve just bred a jersey calf and it’s the most stubborn little calf you’ve ever met as far as halter training goes – he will NOT walk on the halter at all, even though we’ve had him on it almost every day. He seems to really resent humans! I guess he fits into that 1% that just won’t work…

The only thing is they don’t have much bulk to them. I’ve found a good cross to be belgian blue. Any jersey worth her salt should easily calve a belgian blue, and belgians have bulk (though the crosses arent usually double muscled) and a really, really good temperament. They may well slow down more than a jersey though. But they are very pretty!

Holsteins I personally would steer clear of unless you have a LOT of work for them to do. I started with a holstein X simmental and he didn’t grow as big as a holstein but he was SO strong and severely underworked. I’ve just finally come to the decision to sell him as he was total overkill for the work I do (pulling firewood, pulling silage to sheep in winter, riding etc) and that was just a single, imagine what work a pair would need! They also need feeding and housing, so if you’re not making full use of them, is it worth it? Not to mention the health weaknesses of full holsteins. I think even if I did have a lot of work to do, I’d rather have many smaller animals than two big ones, as you have more versatility from just using one for a little job to using 8 for something bigger! With no wastage…

[Andy Carson]

I am not aware of any scientific studies of hoof color/strength either, but it seems to match with my experience with the few horses I have had. I can hypothesize a mechanism. Keratin is the major structural protein of hoof walls (and hair and horns and other “stuff”). It is made up of many amino acids, and one of the most important amino acids in keratin is cysteine. This amino acid can form chemical bonds between protein molecules (called disulfide bonds) and is essentially the “glue” that keeps a hoof together. Cysteine is damaged by exposure to UV light, which would weaken the hoof. Melanin is very efficient at blocking and absorbing UV light, some might even go so far as to say this is melanin’s evolutionary fuction… People who’s hair gets dry and brittle when it’s exposed to light in the summer are experiencing this effect, and I think animals that spend most of thier lives outside would experience it too. A hypothesis is made to be tested, but I think this makes sense…

[Tim Harrigan]

This is interesting and seems like it might have some basis in reality. When are you going to test it?

[Andy Carson]

Oh, I am probably not going to be able to resist testing this. I have seen black hooves sold as chew toys for dogs, I can probably find a white one somewhere. Then I just need a high intensity UV light and a hoof rasp to test resistance to abrasion. Check, check. Seems like it would be a pretty easy test, although I would be using shorter duration high intensity light rather than letting the hooves sit outside for god knows how long. Plus, it’s not that sunny here very often. If the hypothesis really is true, the color of the hooves are probably less important in places where it’s not that sunny. More to come.

[Vicki]

This keratin-cysteine-UV light dynamic is very interesting!

Now consider dairy Holsteins, which in most parts of the USA spend most or all of their time indoors, out of natural sunlight and its UV rays. Are their hooves generally softer or more brittle than working Holsteins living outdoors? Is that related to the wetness or dryness of the environment?

Andy: let the scientific method begin. . .

[sickle hocks]

Fun! Hooray for science! Do the experiment!
Butler measured compression strength and modulus of elasticity for hoofs with varying diet / mineral assay / color and growth rate and found no significant differences…He did find significant differences with moisture content, with hooves less than 19% or more than 30% getting weaker…
With black and white feet on the same horse he found no differences in strength or moisture content….but obviously there are differences between horses, with some breeds tending towards certain colors…

(This paraphrased from his textbook, I haven’t read the original papers…there was a phd thesis and J. Animal Sci. 44:257.)

His text (principles of horseshoeing III) also has this fun old saying:

“One white foot, buy him;
two white feet, try him;
three white feet, deny him;
Four white feet and a white nose___
Take off his hide and feed him to the crows.”

[Tim Harrigan]

Thanks for the JAS reference, I will take a look at that. It does not surprise me to find no difference, but many times the testing procedure simply fails to find a difference, does not mean that a difference does not exist. There could be some issues such as Andy suggests that when in the right (wrong?) environment differences are apparent. Also, scientific tradition sets a high bar for stating that differences clearly exist, 95% certainty, or only a 5% chance for error based on the information that is analyzed. In some cases I think that can be unreasonably stringent and a 90% certainty would be convincing enough. It depends on the experiment and what is being measured.

Vicki, an overriding issue with Holsteins housed inside would be that they are on concrete 24/7. It can be very abrasive and give rise to problems that would not likely occur on pasture. Certainly a prolonged wet or dry environment could cause problems though.

[sickle hocks]

@tim….nicely put regarding negative results…
There is a big list of references at the end of that chapter and it’s not entirely clear which one dealt with hoof strength vs. color…but i seem to remember him saying he had done that work, and the JAS one was the only one he was primary author on…it looks like their main focus was on a gelatin supplement but they were doing strength and modulus of elasticity measurements…if you’re keen i could scan you the whole list of references sometime…i can’t access that kind of library easily right now…
I was surprised that they couldn’t detect strength changes with different diets and hoof mineral contents…he does note that hoof size is strongly related to nutrition, and that the foot can continue to increase in size to age 6

[Tim Harrigan]

Yes, I would like the list of references, others probably would as well. Thanks.

[Baystatetom]

In a highly unscientific test I bought several different colored hoofs for my dog at the feed store. My 9 month old lab mix can chew a white hoof down to nothing in 2 days while the black ones take a least a week. I have to say I am surprised, I thought there would be no difference. I remember my grandfather saying the blacker the better but I always thought it was just a old wives-tale.
~Tom

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