[becorson]

I know someone here in Pa. who is looking for a home for her Belgian cross horse. I’ll see if she has found a place for him yet.

[becorson]

I’ll chime in too>
i have kept horses with cattle at times over the past 40 odd years with mixed results. had a standardbred gelding that thought he was a cutting horse and pestered the cattle (especially the milk cow) too much. He also herded the sheep to the point that they overheated one day.
another time i had a jersey heifer aroung 5-6 months old that i kept with a mare to keep her from sucking on the milk cow. the heifer pestered the mare until the mare knocked off one of the heifer’s horns… the heifer lived but it was a mess for a while. i suppose it would have been a mess if the kick had connected with her skull, too.
another time, I kept two mares in a farmer’s field with about 30 dry Holstein dairy cows for a summer, and they all got along fine but the horses gained about 300 pounds each by eating free choice silage! a wonder they didn’t colic.
personally I never had a cow, steer or bull hurt a horse , but have heard of it happening and can easily imagine it. off topic, but i also know of a case where a big Tamworth boar killed a horse that he was pastured with…
summary: i think it would depend a lot on the individual animals and what kind of set up you have.
final thought: remember that horses and cattle have different body language and don’t always understand each other’s warning signs well enough to stay out of trouble.

[becorson]

Die Leute in Argentina sprechen manchmal Deutch, glaub’ ich.

[becorson]

I don’t have any minis but have quite a few friends who do. I would love to see someone drive a 6 up of minis with a mini-stage coach or mini brewery wagon or something! they are strong for their size and so easy to transport. one of my friends carries hers in …. you guessed it…. a “mini van” ! har har har

[becorson]

I have two 1200 pound draft cross mares that i use for draft work and pleasure driving. for the past 5 years or so i have used (leather) Scandinavian style harness . it’s a versatile, durable harness that has worked well for me and my horses.

[becorson]

I have heard of oxen going for around $1.00 per pound which is a bit more than they would bring for meat. i guess all that training has to be worth something!

[becorson]

Barry Hiltz at Ross Farm Museum in Nova Scotia is a good source of information about head yokes.
there is also a book called “In Praise of Oxen” that has a lot of good pictures of head yokes.

[becorson]

so far, I have had milking shorthorns, jerseys and american lineback cattle. overall my favorite breed has been the milking shorthorn. They are medium in size and temperament (not too sluggish but not too hyper either). i think they are pretty too.

i believe the roan color is more common in the beef shorthorn type than it is in the milking shorthorn but the beef shorthorns are often polled (no horns).
apparently there are some milking shorthorn breeders in new england that select for a high percentage of roan ones… Colonial williamsburg has a nice team of roan milking shorthorn oxen for sale at a reasonable price just now.

[becorson]

Mangel Wurzel Clemons…. it does have a ring to it! :o)

[becorson]

Just got back from the long-awaited Conference on Oxen in Williamsburg virginia. it was great! there were about 100 people there, not counting the presenters and teamsters, so it was a big group. About half of the participants had no experience with oxen and another 1/4 of the group had only a little experience, and there were some with a good bit of experience, too. We spent three mornings learning about the history, present and future of oxen and three afternoons working hands-on with six teams of mature oxen and one little team of Devon heifers, guided by some of the greatest promoters of Oxen in the world today, (e.g., Drew Conroy, Tim Huppe and family, the Winslows from Maine, Dick Rosenberg fromTillers, Paul Starkey, Dr. Don Collins, and Rob Flory of Howell Farm …)
anyone who is feeling sorry they missed this opportunity will be glad to know that it looks likely that Col. Williamsburg will offer another similar conference sometime in the future (in a couple of years?)

[becorson]

good work!
what kind of oxendo you have?

[becorson]

Glad to hear it went so well and that you will be doing it again!

[becorson]

i loved the story about the hen laying an egg right in front of the city kids!
how did your event go?

[becorson]

i think you could probably work a young bull but i sure wouldn’t want to work a mature dairy bull! maybe i’m just chicken, but my guide line is “don’t trust your life to an animal whose testicles weigh more than his brain”. most stallions are right on the border line when it comes to brain/ testicle weight ratio. But bulls’ testicles weigh more than twice as much as their brains. (i’m a vet pathologist, that’s how i know). lol

[becorson]

just wanted to add a comment on the time to castrate…. it’s true that bulls get bigger neck muscles –to the point that a neck yoke won’t fit them well — but steers grow taller and get heavier overall and combined with a more docile temperament i think steers make much better draft animals. it’s also kinder to the animal to castrate them young, i think. as well as less risky for everyone to work on a 150 pound animal instead of a 1500 pound one!

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