Oxen versus Horses

Why I farm with draft cattle.

Oxen vs Horses

I get the question all the time, “why do I use oxen rather than horses?” It is a great question so I figured I would tell you all about it. Honestly when I was considering draft animal power I just assumed it would be horses. I don’t think I could have even told you what an Ox was. I had read a couple of books about farming with draft horses and had started to dream about farming without a tractor. There is more written about draft horses and at least here in the US that is what is culturally “normal.” But that doesn’t mean they are the best beast of burden in all circumstances. I have come to understand that oxen are the most appropriate draft animal in our situation and I believe they can be a great alternative power source for many small scale farms and ranches.

Cattle are actually the most numerous draft animals on the planet. This includes oxen, mature castrated male bovines that are trained to work, and other classes of cattle as well like cows, and bulls. There are many places where horses simply can not live due to heat, feed resources, and parasites. But here in North America the horse, as well as the mule, are the predominant draft animals that we see. That wasn’t always the case though.

Oxen, and working cows made a lot of sense on the small American farm during the colonial period. Honestly most people couldn’t afford horses. Animals that were solely used for work were considered a luxury. Most people yoked up their cow as she could provide milk, meat, manure, materials, and muscle. Even oxen whose sole purpose was work were not as common. American Milking Devons are one cattle breed that is a remnant of the time when cows were more of a multi purpose animal.

I started working with oxen by accident. I had zero training in farming with draft animals when we bought our farm. I was trained in straight ahead tractor based organic vegetable production. I dreamed of not having to hear the noise and smell the diesel exhaust of a tractor, and I wanted something simpler and more sustainable.

I found a book called Oxen a Teamsters Guide, by Drew Conroy. This is just about the only book on oxen available, and it’s currently out of print. After reading that book I was curious about starting with oxen. One of the things that was appealing is that I could just start with calves. They were cheap, easily available and if my crazy new project didn’t work out I simply had well behaved beef. If I was to start with horses however, I would need to invest in an older trained team and honestly I didn’t have the resources to do that. At the time a team of draft horses was probably at least $2000 a piece and the cost of “drop” calves at the local dairy were around $20. The calves were also less intimidating. I got to work with them as they grew and my skills as a teamster also grew.

After I started to train my first set of calves I came to realize that I really like working with cattle. I have grown my interest and my herd since then . The other thing that happened was that they started to work. I still remember to this day the first time I yoked up my small team and tied them to a sled with a rock on it. I told them to step up and they pulled that little load with more intensity than I was expecting. It was exhilarating and I was hooked. Ever since then I have searched for new and exciting things for them to pull around the farm.

I quickly realized that unlike my tractor that was wearing down with time and use that the oxen got better the more I used them. I started designing our systems so that I could incorporate them in more of the farm chores everyday. Soon I was incorporating their muscle into our pasture based poultry production moving feed and temporary structures around the fields. This proved to be great work for them because they got a workout but I also had space to maneuver them so that I could practice driving them in tight spaces. We do pasture chores everyday and it is the backbone of their training program.

The big turning point was when I started to utilize them in the garden. When we began growing vegetables for the market seriously we had to make a decision, because my tractor was a bit too big for a small market garden. We either had to re-tool and get more appropriately sized machinery or I could take the plunge and start using draft power in the garden. I had been experimenting and had some success with certain garden tasks.

It took about 5 years to fully transition to oxen power in the garden and I had to completely rethink the way I was farming. I simply did not have the “horsepower” that a tractor does so I had to be smarter about how to best use the power I did have. That is when I gave up plowing and we transitioned to a permanent bed low till system. I have designed and built tools for this method that allow me to use the oxen to shape and maintain these beds.

I am pretty proud of the way we have developed our farm systems to incorporate the oxen. They are the most appropriate power source in our situation. They are easier to maintain than horses. They can fit into and do work in spaces that I could not reach with a tractor. And they are the backbone of our fertility program. Another reason I use oxen is that I prefer their manure for composting as opposed to horse manure. Because they are ruminants the material is more broken down and I feel that the compost is superior.

Horses could fit well into a farm system and I know plenty of great farmers who use them, not to mention the entire Amish community, but for me it is the humble ox that makes the farm work. They are safe and gentle. Yoking them is a lot easier than harnessing horses. They make great compost, and I enjoy their grounded demeanor. I love working with my oxen every day.