Tex and Joe

[Kevin Cunningham]

So on Tim’s request I’ll post a little update about my boys Tex and Joe(Joseph in the Yoke so not to confuse them, sounds too much like whoa). They are growing like mad. The spring grass flush has been impressive this year on the ground that had chicken tractors over it last year, and everybody is loving the green stuff. I love feeding grass to cows they just eat it up. After raising milk goats for five years I am really starting to appreciate animals that graze more effectively. We also have more grass than we can stock right now so the getting it good for the boys. They get moved onto fresh grass every 12 hours right now. Lucky guys!

I still try to work them everyday but recently I have had to be on the tractor more often and have missed more workouts. I still make my living burning diesel, but maybe I can use less in the future as I incorporate draft animals into the farm. The boys haul the chicken feed and water for us and I having been using the stoneboat more to just burn off spring energy. I made a fun little sled from scrap redwood that I’ll have to post some pictures of later that they can also pull some loads of firewood on.

I still have them on halters and I have never let them off lead so far. I have a been working on them trusting me more. I have really come to see that my reaction to events can trigger reactions in them. If I get scared, frustrated, confused, or excited so do they. I guess I never thought about it before but they really do look up to me. I have started un hitching them and turning them around to unload water or feed. That way they can see what I am doing, and when there is another helper I can work on having them stand for longer with out bolting. They are definately progressing well and I can’t wait to work them more.

For me it is real nice change from listening to the drone of a tractor all day long to go and work the boys a little in the evening. It can actually change my mood and day around if it has been tiring and frustrating, which tractors always are. I am looking forward to the future and see many ways to incorporate them into the farm. Maybe y’all have some advice. Right now I farm about 10 acres a year, 8 in grain, and 2 in vegetables. We hay about 10 to 15 each summer and try to graze the rest of the 45 open acres we have. I feel like this a good sized farm for draft but how much would I need to cover the same amount of ground that I do right now with a tractor?

I chose oxen because I have no draft animal experience and they were available and cheap and the loss return was greater (beef). Is it possible to do this with oxen? I love working cattle but it seems to me more people farm with horses. I am hesitant to enter into the horse world but is it something I should consider if I want to do more of my farming with draft power? I just found out that my neighbor has a boat load of horse equipment and couple of older mares, 20 years or so, if I wanted to try a bit, but I really am drawn to oxen so I don’t know if I want to complicate things too much right now by learning all the horse stuff as well. Anyhow I would say things are going well on the farm and spring is keeping all of us busy. Happy farming!

[Tim Harrigan]

Glad things are progressing well, Andy summed up the horse/ox assessment pretty well. No question that horses are more numerous than oxen, but they can both get the job done.

[Andy Carson]

I am glad to hear that you are thinking about increasing the animal draft contribution in your operation, Kevin. Are you thinking or switching to 100% draft power or going part tractor? The amount of land seems pretty large and the tasks varied. How much of that ten acres do you plow every year? Would you use the same practices as you use with the tractor with animals or modify things significantly? With that much pasture and what I imagine to be a long grazing season, more oxen might be cheap to keep, if you go that way. I know in the west especially oxen are very “weird” to many people and almost seem like a novelty animaln rather than a real working animal. I have had to do alot of explaining to my own family too (who are also westerners). Focusing on the economics of oxen makes a strongest argument in my hands and for the people I talk to. If you are very serious about this perhaps it would be useful to plan out what operates would need done and how long you have to spend doing each operation. I have found this gives a good idea, but it probably better to budget twice the time (more or less) to account for weather, breakdowns, etc. Between the rural heritage site and the expertice of everyone here, you can get a pretty good idea of how much work you can expect from different sets of animals doing different tasks.

[Kevin Cunningham]

I can forsee a “mixed power” type of situation at least in the transitionary years, because it is completely unrealistic to think that I could just switch and make it work right now. I also don’t know I can give up to loader capacity of a tractor completely. For making compost, and unloading feed, equipment, etc a loader is essential to our farm. I am drawn to oxen because I have more pasture than I can currently stock and our grazing season can easily be year round. I did feed hay this winter, but as I become a better grazier I hope to quickly eliminate the hay except for the dairy animals. I will also have plenty of oat and other straw from grain production for feeding more mature animals as well.

I do plow and I can pull a three bottom 16 with my tractor, so this is going to be hard to transition to draft, but I don’t plow the whole each year. I am on a every other year plowing schedule and this could change as well. Andy this is part of the reason that I was interested in your disc setup because in the fall most fields get a quick disc and then planting cover crop. I could even see the grain fields getting less plowing if I can minimise “disc pan” from tractor discing.

Recognising all this it will be a long transition to make the farm more draft based and I know that I’ll probably need more than one team. First things first though is to get these boys up to speed and for me to get a good schooling in draft power. Thanks to everyone here I have learned tons this year already!

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