Ox

An ox (plural oxen), also known as a bullock in Australia and India,

is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated
adult male cattle; castration makes the animals easier to control.
Cows (adult females) or bulls (intact males) may also be used in
some areas.

Oxen are used for plowing, for transport (pulling carts, hauling
wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for
powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other
purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly
Zebu oxen in Mumbai, India
in low-impact, select-cut logging.

Oxen are usually yoked in pairs. Light work such as carting

household items on good roads might require just one pair, while for
heavier work, further pairs would be added as necessary. A team
used for a heavy load over difficult ground might exceed nine or ten
pairs.

Contents Ploughing with Oxen by George H.

Harvey, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1881
Domestication
Training
Shoeing
Uses and comparison to horses
See also
References
External links

Oxen used in farms for plowing

Domestication
Oxen are thought to have first been harnessed and put to work around 4000 BC.[1]

Training
Working oxen are taught to respond to the signals of the teamster, bullocky or ox-driver. These signals are
given by verbal command and body language, reinforced by a goad, whip or a long pole (which also serves
as a measure of length: see rod). In pre-industrial times, most teamsters were known for their loud voices
and forthright language.

Verbal commands for draft animals vary widely throughout the world. In North America, the most common
commands are:
 Back: back up
Gee: turn to the right
Get up (also giddyup or giddyap, contractions for "get thee
up" or "get ye up"): go
Haw: turn to the left
Whoa: stop

In the New England tradition, young castrated cattle selected for

draft are known as working steers and are painstakingly trained from
a young age. Their teamster makes or buys as many as a dozen A team of ten pair of oxen in
Australia
yokes of different sizes for each animal as it grows. The steers are
normally considered fully trained at the age of four and only then
become known as oxen.[2]

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 normally consisted of four pairs aged a year apart. Each year, a pair
of steers of about three years of age would be bought for the team and trained with the older animals. The
pair would be kept for about four years, then sold at about seven years old to be fattened for beef – thus
covering much of the cost of buying that year's new pair. Use of oxen for plowing survived in some areas of
England (such as the South Downs) until the early twentieth century. Pairs of oxen were always hitched the
same way round, and they were often given paired names. In southern England it was traditional to call the
near-side (left) ox of a pair by a single-syllable name and the off-side (right) one by a longer one (for
example: Lark and Linnet, Turk and Tiger).[3]

Ox trainers favor larger animals for their ability to do more work. Oxen are therefore usually of larger
breeds, and are usually males because they are generally larger. Females can also be trained as oxen, but as
well as being smaller, are often more valued for producing calves and milk. Bulls are also used in many
parts of the world, especially Asia and Africa.[4][5]

Shoeing
Working oxen usually require shoes,[6] although in England not all working oxen were shod.[7] Since their
hooves are cloven, two shoes are required for each hoof, as opposed to a single horseshoe. Ox shoes are
usually of approximately half-moon or banana shape, either with or without caulkins, and are fitted in
symmetrical pairs to the hooves. Unlike horses, oxen are not easily able to balance on three legs while a
farrier shoes the fourth.[6][8] In England, shoeing was accomplished by throwing the ox to the ground and
lashing all four feet to a heavy wooden tripod until the shoeing was complete.[6] A similar technique was
used in Serbia[9] and, in a simpler form, in India,[10] where it is still practiced.[11] In Italy, where oxen may
be very large, shoeing is accomplished using a massive framework of beams in which the animal can be
partly or completely lifted from the ground by slings passed under the body; the feet are then lashed to
lateral beams or held with a rope while the shoes are fitted.[12][13]

Such devices were made of wood in the past, but may today be of metal. Similar devices are found in
France, Austria, Germany, Spain, Canada and the United States, where they may be called ox slings, ox
presses or shoeing stalls.[8][14] The system was sometimes adopted in England also, where the device was
called a crush or trevis; one example is recorded in the Vale of Pewsey.[7] The shoeing of an ox partly lifted
in a sling is the subject of John Singer Sargent's painting Shoeing the Ox,[15] while A Smith Shoeing an Ox
by Karel Dujardin shows an ox being shod standing, tied to a post by the horns and balanced by supporting
the raised hoof.
 A single left- Karel Dujardin, 1622–1678: Ox shoeing sling in the
hand ox shoe of A Smith Shoeing an Ox Dorfmuseum of Mönchhof,
the type used Austria; a pair of ox shoes is
for large attached to the near left column.
Chianina oxen
in Tuscany

Uses and comparison to horses

Oxen can pull heavier loads, and pull for a longer period of time
than horses depending on weather conditions.[16] On the other hand,
they are also slower than horses, which has both advantages and
disadvantages; their pulling style is steadier, but they cannot cover as
much ground in a given period of time. For agricultural purposes,
oxen are more suitable for heavy tasks such as breaking sod or
plowing in wet, heavy, or clay-filled soil. When hauling freight,
oxen can move very heavy loads in a slow and steady fashion. They
are at a disadvantage compared to horses when it is necessary to pull
a plow or load of freight relatively quickly.
Riding an ox in Hova, Sweden
For millennia, oxen also could pull heavier loads because of the use
of the yoke, which was designed to work best with the neck and
shoulder anatomy of cattle. Until the invention of the horse collar, which allowed the horse to engage the
pushing power of its hindquarters in moving a load, horses could not pull with their full strength because the
yoke was incompatible with their anatomy[17] (yokes press on their chest, inhibiting their breathing).

Well-trained oxen are also considered less excitable than horses.

See also
Aurochs
Bullock cart (ox-cart)
Bullocky (ox-driver, teamster)
Ox (zodiac)
Ox in Chinese mythology
Ox-wagon (bullock wagon)
Oxtail
Ridge and furrow
References
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121124035129/http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab57)
from the original on November 24, 2012. Retrieved September 17, 2012.
2. Conroy, Drew (2007). Oxen, A Teamster's Guide. North Adams, Massachusetts, USA: Storey
Publishing. ISBN 978-1-58017-693-4.
3. Copper, Bob, A Song for Every Season: A Hundred Years of a Sussex Farming Family (pp 95–
100), Heinemann 1971
4. John C Barret (1991), "The Economic Role of Cattle in Communal Farming Systems in
Zimbabwe", to be published in Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal, p 10. (http://www.odi.org.uk/work/
projects/pdn/papers/32b.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120918135957/http://w
ww.odi.org.uk/work/projects/pdn/papers/32b.pdf) 2012-09-18 at the Wayback Machine
5. Draught Animal Power, an Overview, Agricultural Engineering Branch, Agricultural Support
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ag/ags/agse/chapterps1/chapterps1-e.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2010070111
4759/http://www.fao.org/ag/ags/agse/chapterps1/chapterps1-e.htm) 2010-07-01 at the
Wayback Machine
6. Williams, Michael (17 September 2004). "The Living Tractor" (http://www.foxearth.org.uk/oxen.
html). Farmers Weekly. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110303114656/http://www.fox
earth.org.uk/oxen.html) from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
7. Watts, Martin (1999). Working oxen (https://books.google.com/books?id=u86yjr-J-hAC&printse
c=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false). Princes Risborough: Shire. ISBN 0-7478-0415-X.
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External links
Media related to Oxen at Wikimedia Commons

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