For Brian Burger, owner of New Harmony Farmstead in Coburn, raising and training oxen is just one aspect of his greater commitment to and philosophy of sustainable agriculture.
Oxen in training: yoked to sustainability
by Elizabeth Timberlake-Newell
For Brian Burger, owner of New Harmony Farmstead in Coburn, raising and training oxen is just one aspect of his greater commitment to and philosophy of sustainable agriculture.
“All flesh is grass,” said Burger. “Animals can be an important and integral part of sustainable agriculture. They can convert plant matter into useable substances to grow our food crops.”
Burger training one of his oxen to pull a cart. Photo courtesy of Brian Burger
The animal of choice for most draft animal farmers in the area is a horse. Burger chose to work with oxen not because of the numerous oxen-fancier competitions throughout the U.S., but because he is seeking a more sustainable means of cultivating fields, through the use of the most commonly available draft animal.
“If the objective is truly the most sustainable agriculture we can do, if it’s about community and environmental stewardship, if it’s about teaching people alternative ways of doing things and teaching people gentle ways of doing things, oxen fit into it,” said Burger.
By definition, an ox is a castrated bull over the age of four. Before that, the animal is deemed a working steer.
An ox must be fully trained by the time that it reaches adulthood otherwise the animal would be too unruly for farm work. Burger has been training three bull calves and one female calf (called a heifer) since very early this year when he purchased the calves at one week of age. To create a strong connection between him and his future oxen, Berger bottle fed them himself, using a milk replacer.
This strong bond has, according to Burger, helped in the training process as it developed the animals’ trust in him.
An ox begins his training when he is one month old and he is put into a halter for the first time. What follows is a mixture of training in commands by his handler, socialization, exposure to implements and plow training with a driver.
Burger explained that the standard commands direct the animal without using force or violence—an ox can be told to “whoa” (stop), or “giddup” (go), which would be followed by a gentle tap with a goad. Other commands tell the ox to turn right or left, step into or out of the harness or stall.
Oxen must also be socialized to work with humans and other oxen.
“One of the things they have to learn is that humans are in charge,” said Burger. “Always. Doesn’t matter which human it is.”
He also pointed out that the animals must be well-trained to work with people because oxen retain their horns. Oxen use their horns when they walk backwards to brace the yoke while hitched to a yoke and plow. Usually the horns are tipped with balls, but Burger warned that the driver must be aware of where the horns are at all times.
The work done by oxen often also requires them to be socialized to work with other oxen. Oxen can work singly, in pairs, or be hitched in pairs in tandem, but the most common is the pair. Some other oxen trainers, noted Burger, train their younger animals with older animals.
Burger will soon be pairing up his animals to work together; he has been waiting to assess the confirmation of the oxen so that the pairs will be evenly matched.
Burger noted an issue with pairing oxen.
“One of the frustrating things is that once you pair up animals, they become really tied to that pairing, to the extent that when one animal passes, the other animal is put down because it won’t work well with another mate,” said Burger.
Before the animals are paired, they must be exposed to different situations and farm implements.
Burger has not taken his young oxen out into the field to plow yet, but they have pulled objects in his garden. One-third of their training was in the forest, so that the ox develops the confidence to step over logs and push through brush.