Working cows

[clayfoot-sandyman]

Does anyone know anything about working cows?

I’m looking to train a pair of heifer calves and wondered if anyone has done this and bred/milked them alongside working once they’re mature?
My question is at what stage of pregnancy would one stop working them and when could you return them to light work?

I read somewhere that research in UK and India had shown that 4-5 hours light work per day on lactating cows had had no significant effect on their milk yield but it gave no more info than that?

Any experiences? Ed

[Carl Russell]

There have been several threads here covering that subject.

HOWIE???

Here is a link to one good one..http://www.draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=833&highlight=working+milking+cows

Carl

[Howie]

Don’t start with one that is going to have a huge udder to get damaged.
If they have been working every day, they can do lite work up until like 3 or 4 weeks and go back in 3 or 4 weeks.
I liked mine to freshen in February when all they had to do is feed hay.
I had mine nursing calves which were locked in the barn when the cows were working. The calves milked the cows out dry 3 times a day. I took what we wanted before I put the calves on.:)
You will need to be more considerate of a cow than a steer. She is using more energy than a steer which may be half again as big as her.
P.S. It is not work to pull a lite wagon that is exersize.
About half the oxen, of the emegrantes, on the Oregon trail were cows.:(

[fabian]

@Howie 25394 wrote:

About half the oxen, of the emegrantes, on the Oregon trail were cows.:(

Very intelligent, these emegrantes ! 😉

[bivol]

yes, very smart!

why pull a cow along with you? make her pull YOU!

and this also keeps them in check (no way to run from a yoked team!)

[Howie]

A band needs a good director.
Some people just make better laborers.:)
An an ox team needs a good director.
Some cattle just make better burger.:(

[bivol]

but a burger is for eating, not working.
and if an animal makes a better burger than worker, it can might as well become one, so some other animal with more attitude to work gets its neck saved, and the chance to live and work. 😉

[fabian]

@bivol 25460 wrote:

…..and the chance to live and work. 😉

without gliding in a philosophical discussion:
Do you really think that an animal prefers a working live over an end in the freezer ?
It’s a very human seight .
But also in human seight:
What would you prefer : A short live at the beach of the Bahamas, lying in the sun and slurping Cuba Libre (or what ever) or a long live with hard work and at the end there is death too ?

Wolfgang

@Howie

Why didn’t at least YOU answer my question about the depth of the hitchpoint ? :confused:
http://draftanimalpower.com/showthread.php?t=3947

[Howie]

If an animal enjoys his work and likes to be with you then it becomes recreation and socializing.
I can talk ox yokes all day. I have or have had just about any yoke you can think of except a foerhead yoke.
Carl’s sweet point is the point where the animal is the most comfortable in the job he is doing.
If the draft is about right the hitch point will be 1/2 to 3/4 of the distance between the top of the neck seat and the bottom of the bow.
The draft just determines how much of a rolling hitch you are putting on the yoke. You can adjust by hitching to the front or back of the yoke or by raising or lowering the hich point.
The old kind of staple is hard to adjust the one I make is very easy to move the hitch point forward or back. Forward for a long or high hitch, back for a short or low htich.
The neck seat has a lot to do with how high or low he will carry his head.
The less elleptical or flater the neck seat the lower he will carry his head.
Most beginers have the bowes way to low and a yoke that is to big. The ox just can’t be comfortable with this. If the cattle are not comfortable they will not want to be with you or work for you.
If you are going to WORK your cattle the width of the neck seat is very important. I like about 4 and a half for 5 inch yoke about 7 for a 10.
I will try to put on a picture of my staple.

[fabian]

Thank you Howard for your answer.
I’m indeed more confused than before, because the data I found at Tillers and these of you and Carl are different, in parts converse

http://www.tillersinternational.org/oxen/resources_techguides/NeckYokeDesignandFitTechGuide.pdf

from the bottom of page 8 to page 9

so I have to follow Drew Conroy who says that the oxen will show us, if they feel uncomfortable.
My cows like the neck yoke. They show no signs of discomfort, neither when putting the yoke on them nor when “working” in the yoke.
So I have to trust them.

Here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_ScW141KHU&feature=related
the oxen cough (at 0:32), which mine did never, although the waggon with the manure weighs about 2500 to 2800 lbs and we have to drive over – in parts – bumpy ways because of boars which “plowed” the ways in the fields.

And here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX-XJ9zMJx8
and here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuytRXRfyeI

there are two totally differnt behaviours while plowing. The way the Team in the first video walkes I like much more than the kind of the team in the second video.

Thanks for the answer , now I have to find the way that my team walks more like the team in the first video. I think that my daughter should take a new vid and post it at youtube.

Wolfgang

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