single-style harness/yokes for working in teams.

[bendube]

Hi all,
I was poking around on the german working cattle group website based on charly’s post abou their meetup:
http://www.zugrinder.de/en/events.html

I noticed several pictures of oxen in single yokes/harness working in teams.
This idea is completely new, and very intriguing to me. Can anyone speak to the advantages and disadvantages of this technique? Could this type of harnessing be used to effectively work cattle 3 or 4 abreast?

Thanks!

[henkdemink]

Somewhere in Oxen there is a picture of a farmer plowing with a three abreast in collar harnesses.
Henk.

[Oxhill]

Here are some images you might like.

I suspect it is more flexible as you can easily put together different combinations if they are trained well enough. No reason you couldn’t work four abreast each with a different style of yoke or harness. One glaring disadvantage would be the need for more equipment and more complicated hitch.

Hopefully some of the EURO teamsters will chime in!

Someplace I have an old image of four oxen abreast pulling a wagon using two double yokes. Ray Ludwig has a picture of a similar hitch in his book.

[Oxhill]

@Oxhill 37408 wrote:

Someplace I have an old image of four oxen abreast pulling a wagon using two double yokes.

Found it!

[bendube]

Thanks Andrew. The 3-abreast plowing photo is absolutely beautiful. Those images are getting lots of wheels spinning in our heads here. I’ve been very stuck in a neck yoke world. One of the ideas that it brings to mind is more flexibility in size and class of animals—> example: doing farm work with cows rather than steers (or a mixed hitch of both) seems a lot more feasible with harness rather than yokes.

That’s a good point about expense of harness, especially since a yoke can be made with local materials. I wonder, how closely linked is are the dominance of the neck yoke in the American tradition and the idea of oxen as the choice of the poor farmer and the pioneer?
Basically: if you could afford harness and collars, you probably could afford a horse, and generally, whether due to cultural or agronomic reasons, farmers who could afford horses preferred them? I know there are ALOT of good reasons for any tradition.
Excited to see what other folks have to offer.

Thanks,
Ben

[CharlyBonifaz]

@bendube 37398 wrote:

Can anyone speak to the advantages and disadvantages of this technique?

since I teach mine to work both ways may be I can help…

as was mentioned before: one got more flexibility to harness different animals together; another positive aspect comes to my mind: ploughing along a hillside f.e. when the animals have to work longer at different soil levels; it gives the individual animal more space to move (less interdependance with the partner); you can change the way you have hitched them quickly if need be: two besides each other or behind each other; a discussable advantage: that’s the way it has always been 😉
yes, you not only need more gear but you also have to carry it and have more chance to get entangled

what I cherish about the neckyoke: its very simplicity to make and to use

I claim there is no one and only good way to harness oxen; they all have their pros and cons and need to be considered as to what type of work needs to be done in what kind of surrounding

there is a video of French ox drovers that shows a yoke for 3 oxen: 2 older ones on the side and the greenhorn in the middle

some of the front head yokes could easily be carved by the oxdrover as well and not necessarily implied big expenses

[Oxhill]

You could do the same thing with a single shoulder yoke, single Canadian head yoke, collar or the forehead yoke as CharlyBonifaz suggests.

I have many other images of American cattle in collars so it was common. A few are from New England but most are from the south or Minnesota/North Dakota/Western Canada area. I would guess late 1800s to very early 1900s.

[bendube]

Has anyone tried three abreast with 2 yoked together and a third in single yoke/collar? I’ve tried the unicorn hitch, but I wasn’t too happy with the results.
Where are good threads on modifying equipment for 3 rather than 2?
I’m looking for different ways to fit animals that don’t have teammates into a farm that has a team as well.

Thanks

[Baystatetom]

I have no experience with anything but two steers in a yoke, but my friend and I discovered that while pulling our ice fishing shanty with ATV’s that we have a much easier time pulling it if we hook the two together end to end then if we hook them side by side. Anybody ever try a similar thing with draft power and come to a conclusion of which has greater advantage? I realize four abreast would be more feasible in field work then woods work but does side by side verses in front of one another make a difference as far as how hard they have to work to pull the load?
~Tom

[Oxhill]

HERE is a pitcher of my sister moving a pig pen with two singles. Without the use of an evener making sure everyone is doing their part is an issue but no more than working two teams. I am not sure how well an evener would have worked in this case since they are very different sizes.

[bendube]

Hi all,
Green Mountain College is having a 3-pad collar donated to us. We have done a little bit of work in a single yoke before, so we’ll be sure to share whatever insights/comparisons that we come up with from trying out this system. Might even try to bring it to field days?

[Tim Harrigan]

Anne Wiltafsky brought a couple of 3 pad collars with her last summer and left them at Tillers. They are too small for Will but I expect they will be testing them when they have a pair that they will fit. The general concensus so far has been that the 3 pad collar is not really rugged enough to hold up to some of the heavier tasks that we expect of our cattle.

[Author]

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