Ox Totally Explained

Everything about Oxen totally explained

Oxen (singular ox) are cattle trained as draft animals. Often they're adult, castrated males. In New England and Maritime Canada, the term oxen refers to trained steers at least four years of age. Prior to age four they're referred to as handy steers. Oxen are used for plowing, transport, hauling cargo, threshing grain by trampling, powering machines for grinding grain, irrigation or other purposes, and drawing carts and wagons. Oxen were commonly used to skid logs in forests, and sometimes still are, in low-impact select-cut logging. Oxen are most often used in teams of two, paired, for light work such as carting. In the past, teams might have been larger, with some teams exceeding twenty animals when used for logging.

Raising

In order to become oxen, the cattle must learn to respond appropriately to the teamster's (ox driver's) signals. These signals are given by verbal command, body language, and the use of a goad stick or whip. In preindustrial times, many teamsters were known for their voices and language. In North America, the most common verbal commands are (1) get up (go), (2) whoa (stop), (3) back up, (4) gee (turn to the right) and (5) haw (turn to the left). In the New England tradition, oxen must be painstakingly trained from a young age. Their teamster must make or buy as many as a dozen yokes of different sizes as the animals grow.
   In other countries and ox training traditions, adult cattle with little or no prior human conditioning are often yoked and trained as oxen. This is done for economy, as it's easier to let a calf be raised by its mother, and for lack of adequate methods for housing and feeding young calves.
   A tradition in south eastern England was to use oxen (often Sussex cattle) as dual-purpose animals: for draft and beef. A plowing team of eight oxen consisted of four pairs aged a year apart. Every year, a pair of steers would be bought at about three years of age, and trained with the older animals. The pair would be kept for four years, then at about seven years old they'd be sold to be fattened for beef – thus covering much of the cost of buying the new pair. Use of oxen for plowing survived in some areas of England (such as the South Downs) until the early twentieth century.
   Ox trainers favor larger animals for their ability to do more work. Oxen are therefore usually of larger breeds, and are usually males, because castrated males are generally larger – females can also be trained as oxen, but as well as being smaller, they're often more useful for producing calves and milk.

Use

Oxen can pull harder and longer than horses, particularly on obstinate or almost un-movable loads. This is one of the reasons that teams were dragging logs from forests long after horses had taken over most other draught uses in Europe and North America. Though not as fast as horses, they're less prone to injury because they're more sure-footed and don't try to jerk the load.

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