| Volume 27 Fall-Winter 2001 |
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 Return to Table of Contents The process of training steers for draft work has come down through the ages via oral tradition. The lessons begin very early in life simply because it is easier to handle a fifty-pound calf than a five-hundred pound yearling. Disagreements can be settled in favor of the human much more easily when the animal is smaller.
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Though horses and mules might take most of the credit, oxen did their fair share to help settle the United States. They served as the tractors—pulling stumps, plowing fields, hauling loads, skidding logs. And they were the draft animals that drew covered wagons across the country. Training and working oxen and making the yokes and bows are old folk arts that are rapidly disappearing in this country, but some New Yorkers and New Englanders continue the tradition, and information is now being recorded in books, websites, and videos. Oxen—basically, steers with a good education in the field of farm work—were common draft animals in the early years of our nation. Obtaining cattle for work was often easier than getting a horse, since most people kept cows for milk and raised their own beef. Bull calves that had especially desirable characteristics were kept as bulls, but most males were castrated and fattened for slaughter. A few of the more tractable young steers might be trained as draft animals.
RESOURCES American Dexter Cattle Association 26804 Ebenezer Road Concordia, MO 64020 American Livestock Breeds Conservancy PO Box 477 Pittsboro, NC 27312 Tillers International 5239 South 24th Street Kalamazoo, MI 49002 New England Ox Teamsters 1245 Battle Street Webster, NH 03303 Rural Heritage Magazine 281 Dean Ridge Lane Gainesboro, TN 38562-5039 Small Farmer’s Journal PO Box 1627 Sisters, OR 97759 Small Farm Today 3903 W. Ridge Trail Road Clark, MO 65243-9525 The excerpts above are from "Teaming Up With Oxen: A Farm Tradition" published in Voices Vol. 27, Fall-Winter, 2001. This article discusses training, equipment, and breeds. Voices is the membership magazine of the New York Folklore Society. To become a subscriber, join the New York Folklore Society now. HOME | ABOUT NYFS | PROGRAMS & SERVICES | PUBLICATIONS | RESOURCES | CALENDAR | WHAT’S FOLKLORE? | MEMBERSHIP | GALLERY | SHOP |
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