ox

File:Tang Bronze Ox.jpg bronze ox]]

File:Bullock wagon Promontory Road.jpg

Working oxen are taught to respond to the signals of the teamster, bullocky or ox-driver. The signals are given by oral 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, teamsters were known for their loud voices and forthright language.{{cn|date=October 2021}}

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 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.{{cite book|last=Conroy|first=Drew|title=Oxen, A Teamster's Guide|year=2007|publisher=Storey Publishing|location=North Adams, Massachusetts, USA|isbn=978-1-58017-693-4}}

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.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

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).Copper, Bob, A Song for Every Season: A Hundred Years of a Sussex Farming Family (pp 95–100), Heinemann 1971

Ox trainers favour 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 (intact males) are also used in many parts of the world, especially Asia and Africa.[http://www.odi.org.uk/work/projects/pdn/papers/32b.pdf John C Barret (1991), "The Economic Role of Cattle in Communal Farming Systems in Zimbabwe", to be published in Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal, p 10.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918135957/http://www.odi.org.uk/work/projects/pdn/papers/32b.pdf |date=2012-09-18 }}[http://www.fao.org/ag/ags/agse/chapterps1/chapterps1-e.htm Draught Animal Power, an Overview, Agricultural Engineering Branch, Agricultural Support Systems Division, Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100701114759/http://www.fao.org/ag/ags/agse/chapterps1/chapterps1-e.htm |date=2010-07-01 }}

Working oxen usually require shoes, although in England not all working oxen were shod.{{cite book|last=Watts|first=Martin|title=Working oxen|year=1999|publisher=Shire|location=Princes Risborough|isbn=0-7478-0415-X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u86yjr-J-hAC |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140612033405/http://books.google.com/books?id=u86yjr-J-hAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0|archive-date=2014-06-12}} Since their hooves are cloven, two shoes are required for each hoof, as opposed to a single shoe for horses. 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.

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.{{cite journal|last= Williams|first= Michael|title= The Living Tractor|journal= Farmers Weekly|date= 17 September 2004|url= http://www.foxearth.org.uk/oxen.html|access-date= 22 May 2011|url-status= live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110303114656/http://www.foxearth.org.uk/oxen.html|archive-date= 3 March 2011}} A similar technique was used in Serbia{{cite journal|last=Schomberg|first=A.|title=Shoeing oxen and horses at a Servian smithy|journal=The Illustrated London News|date=7 November 1885|url=http://www.old-print.com/mas_assets/full/N7341934252.jpg|access-date=22 May 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004061233/http://www.old-print.com/mas_assets/full/N7341934252.jpg|archive-date=4 October 2011}} and, in a simpler form, in India,{{cite web|title=Blacksmith shoeing a Bullock, Calcutta, India|url=http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0etVJGROo60/SSujNVwhiJI/AAAAAAAABOc/Kru9OC73FEE/s320/India%2B-%2B100%2Byears%2Bago%2B-%2BBlacksmith%2Bshoeing%2Ba%2Bbullock,%2BCalcutta,%2BKolkata.jpg&imgrefurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0etVJGROo60/SSujNVwhiJI/AAAAAAAABOc/Kru9OC73FEE/s320/India+-+100+years+ago+-+Blacksmith+shoeing+a+bullock,+Calcutta,+Kolkata.jpg|publisher=Stereo-Travel Co.|access-date=22 May 2011|format=stereoscope card (half only)|year=1908}} where it is still practiced.{{cite web|title=Restraining and Shoeing|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/aliaaaaa/166239317/sizes/l/in/photostream/|access-date=22 May 2011|author=Aliaaaaa|location=Bangalore, Karnataka, India|year=2006|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220052234/http://www.flickr.com/photos/aliaaaaa/166239317/sizes/l/in/photostream/|archive-date=20 December 2013}}

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.{{cite web|last=Tacchini|first=Alvaro|title=La ferratura dei buoi|url=http://www.storiatifernate.it/pubblicazioni.php?&cat=51&subcat=120&group=253&id=578|access-date=22 May 2011|language=it|quote=The shoeing of the oxen|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211224451/http://www.storiatifernate.it/pubblicazioni.php?&cat=51&subcat=120&group=253&id=578|archive-date=11 December 2013}}{{cite web|title=Tradizioni - Serramanna|url=http://www.serramanna.altervista.org/tradizioni.htm|access-date=22 May 2011|language=it, sc|quote=Serramanna: traditions|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007114635/http://www.serramanna.altervista.org/tradizioni.htm|archive-date=7 October 2011}}

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.{{cite web|last=Baker|first=Andrew|title=Well Trained to the Yoke: Working Oxen on the Village's Historical Farms|url=http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?Action=View&DocID=899|publisher=Old Sturbridge Village|access-date=22 May 2011|year=1989|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926233152/http://www.osv.org/explore_learn/document_viewer.php?Action=View&DocID=899|archive-date=26 September 2011}}{{cite journal|title=Did You Know?|journal=Wet/Dry Routes Chapter Newsletter|year=1997|volume=4|issue=4|url=http://www.santafetrailresearch.com/wet/vol-06-no-4.html|access-date=22 May 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722134343/http://www.santafetrailresearch.com/wet/vol-06-no-4.html|archive-date=22 July 2011}}

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. The shoeing of an ox partly lifted in a sling is the subject of John Singer Sargent's painting Shoeing the Ox,{{cite web|last=John Singer Sargent|title=Shoeing the Ox|url=http://www.johnsingersargent.org/Shoeing-the-Ox-large.html|access-date=18 August 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160711000249/http://www.johnsingersargent.org/Shoeing-the-Ox-large.html|archive-date=11 July 2016}} 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.

File:Ox shoe.jpg|A single left-hand ox shoe of the type used for large Chianina oxen in Tuscany

File:Karel Dujardin - A Smith Shoeing an Ox.jpg|Karel Dujardin, 1622–1678: A Smith Shoeing an Ox

File:2008.04.18.VorrichtungZumBeschlagenVonOchsen.DorfmuseumMoenchhof.33.JPG|Ox shoeing sling in the Dorfmuseum of Mönchhof, Austria; a pair of ox shoes is attached to the near left column.

File:Sixten.jpg, 2009]]

Oxen can pull heavier loads, and pull for a longer period of time than horses, depending on weather conditions.{{cite news|last=Taylor|first=Tess|title=On Small Farms, Hoof Power Returns|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/dining/04oxen.html |access-date=19 June 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 3, 2011|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522213735/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/dining/04oxen.html?_r=4&sq=Oxen&st=cse&scp=3&pagewanted=all|archive-date=22 May 2013}}

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.

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{{cite web|last=Conroy|first=Drew|title=Dr.|url=http://www.taws.org/TAWS2004/TAWS04-Conroy-040419-A4-all.pdf|work=Ox Yokes: Culture, Comfort and Animal Welfare|publisher=World Association for Transport Animal Welfare and Studies (TAWS)|access-date=21 February 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322111111/http://www.taws.org/TAWS2004/TAWS04-Conroy-040419-A4-all.pdf|archive-date=22 March 2012}} (yokes press on their chest, inhibiting their breathing).{{cn|date=October 2021}}

• Aurochs
• Ox (zodiac)
• Ox in Chinese mythology
• Oxtail
• Boeuf gras

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Category:Cattle

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