Girthing Chain
By Tim Huppe
Reprinted from Small Farmer’s Journal, Fall, Vol. 32, No. 4

     If you are browsing through an antique store or walking through an old barn, keep your eyes open for this unique item. It is likely that many were in use in years past, but were discarded because those that had them did not know their function.
     Butchers and official weigh masters used them, cattle dealers, drovers, and operators of fattening operations used them. There were few weight scales large enough to weigh cattle in the early days. Feed manufacturers had not yet begun handing out cattle weight tapes. So, if you wanted to measure the girth of a bovine, you used a girthing chain. Measuring the girth gave a fair approximation of the animal’s weight. 
     The chain is nine feet long. It is made of brass or steel jeweler’s chain. In line in the chain is small round or oval brass tabs stamped with numbers five through nine. At the beginning of the chain there is a small wire ring which the person held while unraveling the chain. 
     The first brass tab is at five feet, and of course, it is stamped with a five. There is a tab each foot thereafter with corresponding numbered tabs up to nine. Half way between each numbered tab there is an extra link affixed to the chain indicating the half foot. 
     Just like the weight tapes we use today, the chain is wrapped around the girth of the ox directly behind the front legs. With the zero ring in hand, the other end is brought up around snug to the aligning point on the chain. The old saying goes that ‘how snug the chain was pulled depended on if you were buying or selling’.
     A six foot ox weighed approximately 1,000 pounds and an eight foot ox weighed 1,900 pounds. After, the chains were usually wrapped around a wood thread spool to keep from tangling. These chains were well cared for by their owners. 
     Many of the stories written about the ox teams of old refer to them in feet. Now you know that it is girth and not height that they are talking about. 
     If you come across one of these chains and are lucky enough to become the owner of it, take good care with it. With the transfer of ownership of these chains there is often a good story that goes with it.

Brass Horn Training Knobs
By Tim Huppe
Reprinted from Small Farmer’s Journal, Fall, Vol. 32, No. 4

​     It is rare that a team of oxen naturally have horns that match one another.  Teamsters often use various methods to manage the growth of a horn.  The most common method is to use horn weights to pull the horn downward.
            The training knob pictured below had two uses.  The mounting of the knob is quite simple.  The knob is placed over the tip of the horn and the small bolt threaded into the knob is tightened against the horn. 
            One application for this unique knob was to pull horns together.  The knobs are mounted on the horns with the eyelets facing inward.  Piano wire is fastened to the eyelets and strung across the front of the forehead.  The wires are fastened to a turnbuckle.  As the horn was pulled inward, the turnbuckle was tightened.  It was left in place until horns were the desired shape…Piano wire was used, because it broke easily if the ox got tangled up.
            Another application for the knob is to turn the horn upward.
            A teamster choosing to use a head yoke or attempting to lift a horn from eye level or simply likes the look of turned-up horns, would use this knob.
            The knob is mounted on the horn with the eyelets turned upward.   The ox is tied into its stall.  On the ceiling, pulleys are hung.  Small stranded wire or light rope is tied to the knobs, run up and over the pulley and down to a weight.  The pulley system allows the ox to move its head all the while with a continuous upward pull.
            This method requires constant attention from the caregiver, due to its complex nature.

Working Steers and Oxen on the Small Farm
By Tim Huppe
Re-printed from Small Farmer’s Journal, Summer, Vol. 29, No. 3

​          The number of teams of working steers and oxen being trained and used in some fashion in North America is on the rise.  The present number may be the greatest in over forty years.  There are several factors contributing to this increase.
           For centuries, the skills of training steers for work and the craft of building yokes and related equipment was passed down from generation to generation.  It was common for a young boy or girl to be responsible for the care and training of a team from calves to the age of working capability.  Many farms trained a team each year, either for sale or future replacement in their own draft program.  The older, accomplished teamsters will say that no one ever taught them to train cattle; they just did it!  Very little information was available in print until Dr. Drew Conroy put pen to paper.  He has spent many hundreds of hours researching and writing.  His books The Oxen Handbook and Oxen, A Teamsters Guide are the most definitive sources of information to date.  His many articles in farm magazines go into greater depth on a variety of subjects.  A complete novice can follow Conroy’s teamster guide and produce a good pair of working cattle.
            Magazines such as Small Farmer’s Journal, Rural Heritage, Mother Earth News, Draft Horse Journal, and others provide us with articles telling stories of cattle working on farms, in the woods, and on exhibition, etc.
            Organizations provide support at regional levels.  The New England Ox Teamsters Association, the Maine Draft Horse and Ox Association, the Midwest Ox Drovers Association, the Mid-South Ox Drovers Association, the Prairie Drovers Association, and many more offer expertise and opportunity for those interested in working cattle.  4-H clubs around the country offer working steer programs and the opportunity for youth and their families to participate in their project.
            Tillers International in Michigan has for many years offered workshops and internships for those seeking to learn the craft of working steers and building related equipment.
            Museums and living history farms such as Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, Howell Farm in New Jersey, Sauder Village in Ohio, Remick Farm in New Hampshire, The Farm School in Massachusetts, and the Ross Farm in Nova Scotia, just to name a few, are working cattle on a regular basis and offer opportunities for others to learn on their respective sites.
            Well-organized workshops focusing on farming and logging with working cattle are now available regionally.
            Equipment such as yokes, bows, logging equipment, and farm equipment is now more easily available through magazine and internet sources.
            Fairs and exhibitions conduct pulling contests, log scoot classes, plowing matches, precision obstacle courses, etc. for youth and adults.  These gatherings are an excellent place to learn new techniques, exchange information and purchase equipment and cattle.  These competitions are one reason the working cattle numbers are on the increase.
           
 ON THE FARM
            Training cattle for draft on the farm is a work in progress.  Start slow.  Engaging a single animal or a pair in meaningful work is the best method for training.
            An eight-month old pair of calves can easily pull small diameter firewood a small cart, or a light stoneboat.  As the team grows, slowly increase the load volume while never asking them to exceed their reasonable capabilities.
            There are a variety of jobs that cattle can be used for:  pulling a two-wheeled cart, hauling manure to the fields or storage pile.  Back them into the barn, turn-out shed or paddock.  Either hand load or bucket the manure on while they wait patiently.  It may take a few sessions with a helper standing by, but they will soon learn to stand in place during the loading.  A good practice while training them to stand is to drive them up to and face a wall or fence.  As you move along the gutter or change location in shed or paddock, simply lift your goad stick or whip and call them to you. If you have a ground driven manure spreader, all the better.  The older generation of seasoned teamsters who once worked their farms with cattle will speak of spreading manure as a ‘courage builder’.  “The further you go, the lighter the load.  If you want to handle a pair of cattle, spread a load of manure each day.”
            If you have a good pair of helping hands on the farm, teach your cattle to plow ground.  Purchase a good land plow with strong handles. Seek the advice of an experienced teamster and learn the proper techniques.  Attend a few plowing competitions.  Take pictures, ask questions, and do a lot of listening.  Most plow matches are geared toward horse teams.  The basics are the same.
            After the ground has been plowed, hook to a set of harrows.  Install a stout pole on the draw of the harrow.  Run the pole through the ring up to the stop on the pole.  Fasten a chain onto the yoke ring and run it back to the hitch point on the harrow.  You will be pulling the harrow by the chain and the pole will serve useful in steering, stopping, and backing.  If you have a steer that has a tendency to be nervous and back chain, the pole will help overcome this problem.  The likelihood of the animal backing around and stepping on the sharp discs is uncommon when a pole is in use.  If you have a double gang set of harrows, unhook the rear set and work your team on the front set until they are ‘hard’ and in condition for a greater pull.  If your harrows don’t have stone boxes on top, build them and pick stones while your cattle are taking a breather.  This task should be like any other you perform with your cattle.  Maintain a high level of performance.  Be sure the equipment is in good condition.  Make sure the yoke is fitting properly.  Make every pull count.  Keep the rows straight.  Command the cattle to do what you want and see to it that they do so.  Do not use old equipment that can fail.  Breakdowns can cause serious trouble and injury.
            You can fashion ground smoothing equipment with material from your farm.  Car or truck tires cut in half and bolted together make a good drag. Chain link fence or a screen discarded from a loam or gravel processor only needs a pipe or hardwood 2 x 4 bolted across one end to keep them ridged.  You will have a good piece of equipment to smooth fields, driveways, and woods roads.  Don’t forget the easy to build and low cost stoneboat and mudboat.  They are a must around the farm.
            A single steer or ox is good draft power for cultivating row crops.  Even a young steer in a single yoke can pull a cultivator for long periods of time.  Begin the training by having someone halter lead the steer while another tends the handles of the cultivator.  As the steer becomes accustomed to walking between the crop rows, attach a long lead to the halter and have the helper walk either well ahead of the animal or a few rows to the left of the animal.  It won’t be long before the steer will be cultivating by the command of the implement tender.  It would be advisable to put a nose basket on the steer or ox while performing garden work.  It will be much easier to keep his attention and minimize crop damage.
            Haying with cattle can be an enjoyable job.  Most horse drawn mowers are, or can be geared to work efficiently at the walking speed of a pair of cattle.  Ground driven hay tedders and rakes can either be rolled into a windrow using a side delivery rake and picked up with a ground driven hay loader or can be gathered with a dump rake and hand loaded onto a wagon.  Picking up loose hay and loading it onto a wagon drawn by a pair of cattle is a pleasure.  As you walk to the next pile to be loaded, you can call them forward into place.  Again, be sure to use nose baskets during this task.
            Once you have gotten the loaded wagon to the barn, back the wagon to the mow.  If the team hesitates to back the wagon because of an incline or the weight of the load, unhook them from the pole.  Turn them around facing the load, hooking them to the pole, and push the load into the barn.  You may want to practice this technique in an open area before performing the actual task.
            The use of breechings while hauling wheeled vehicles offers advantages.  There is less tongue slap when the cattle are tight within the rigging and the cattle will back great loads with ease and confidence.
            For those making the large round bales, there are now large round bale movers available for use with oxen or horses.
 
IN THE WOODS
            It may well be the value of working steers and oxen in the North American forests that has kept the craft alive until this day.  The slow steady pace of these strong animals makes them well-suited for hauling logs and firewood.  Their cloven hooves give them the ability to work in rough terrain.  Shoeing cattle is an option but most often is not necessary.
            Harvesting wood with cattle can be very simple and low in cost.  A stout ox chain and choker is all the equipment that is needed to pull logs and firewood.  A properly swamped (cleared of brush and debris) woods trail allows the team to draw the load out easily and minimizes hang-ups and chance of injury.  If the saw logs are being harvested, a logging scoot is often employed.  Rolling the logs up onto the bunks of a two runner scoot keeps them free of dirt.  A clean log is worth more to a sawmill, particularly those sawmills that do not have debarking capabilities.  Another feature of the scoot is the large capacity for cut-to-length logs.  The scoot has clearance to pass over rocks and stumps.  It has a built-in flexibility making it more maneuverable and stronger than rigid runner sleds.  Great loads can be hauled with a scoot, particularly on snowy trails.  A rack can be bolted to the top of the bunks for hauling 4’ firewood.  A planed deck with sides can be fastened to the bunks for hauling stove length wood.
            Many designs of two-wheeled forecarts are available.  The forecart is great for hauling tree length saw logs and firewood.  Some forecarts have mechanisms for lifting the butt end of the log off the ground, making the log easier to haul.
            Other forecarts are built arch style.  The arch is backed over the log.  The choker chain is fastened to a fixed hook on the cart.  As the team moves forward the butt end of the log is lifted several inches from the ground.  Both methods work fine and keep the log much cleaner than if it had been twitched out.
            Go devils, tongs, and double runner bob sleds can also be used very effectively in hauling wood.
            Begin when your calves are still young, conditioning them to the noise of a chainsaw, the sound of falling trees, and the sound of heavy motorized equipment.  Even if you are not working them that day, bring them into the woods and tie them unyoked to a tree.  Give them a little hay and let them relax while listening to the noises of the woods operation.
            Again, it is meaningful work that best trains the team to be good working cattle.
            For those of you who are fortunate enough to own or have access to a sugar bush, you will find great satisfaction in hauling maple sap with your cattle.  Sap hauling equipment can be as simple as a food grade plastic barrel mounted on a stoneboat to the traditional galvanized sap hauling tub fixed to a scoot or sled.  The cattle handle themselves very well through water and mud holes.  Their v-plow shaped front end and quiet temperament make them well suited for traveling through deep snow.  And again, they do not need to be shod to do this work efficiently.  The sliding yoke was developed for just this type of work.  The action of a sliding yoke was designed to allow the cattle to move laterally so they could walk in the tracks of the scoot or sled runners.  The mechanism of the yoke demands that the cattle’s neck pieces move in or out at the same time and the same distance.  This assures that one ox did not get advantage over the other.  This style of yoke also proves valuable while maneuvering the team through densely wooded areas.
            It is a source of great pride and satisfaction to work a well-trained pair of cattle in the sugar bush.  Walk to the next maple tree and call your team up.  They will stand patiently while you pour the sap in the tank and then onto the next tree.  After they get to know the sled road, you may be able to point them to the sap house, hop on the sled and let them go.
            There are uses for steers and oxen that can add cash income for the farm.  Hauling Christmas trees from plantation to parking lots is one example.  Families enjoy the experience of searching for the right tree.  The cattle make the event and the memory even better.
            Contact your local utilities and let them know you have well-trained oxen for hire.  It is not uncommon for electric power and telephone companies to hire draft animals to pull cable through remote areas and on islands.
            I have touched upon many of the uses for working cattle and there are many more.  If you have put the time into training a pair of working cattle, make time to use them for meaningful work and enjoyment.  Remember, every farm needs a team!

Cy and Don
A Pair of Knowing Oxen
​by Tim Huppe

   Every ox teamster has a list of famous oxen fixed in their memory. One such team for me was Les Barden’s Durham oxen, Cy and Don.
   At one time, and for many years, the University of New Hampshire kept a quality herd of registered Milking Shorthorns, also known to New England ox teamsters, as Durham’s. This name was given to them due to the fact that Durham County, England was one of the northeastern counties in which the breed was developed and improved. As is the case even today, the Durham bull calves were in great demand by ox teamsters. The herdsmen at the University were fully aware of the demand for quality bull calves. I’m sure there was a list of buyers waiting for calves.
   Cy and Don were born to big, rugged cows and were sired by the same bull. Their body type was what we refer to as old fashion. They had long bodies, deep and wide chests, and thick, straight legs.  They were straight along the top of their backs and wide across the forehead. The old ox men would say a team built like Cy and Don were, “square as a brick and smooth as a trout”. They had black hooves (harder than white hooves). Their color was dark red and they each had large stars on their foreheads. They were horned up alike. And if you were an experienced ox teamster, you chose cattle that had a hair whirl on the forehead above the level of the eyes (a sign of intelligence). And in addition they did not want cattle with black noses, however they would make exceptions for the right animal. Cy and Don had a high whirl and pink noses. Now, I know these last two requirements are considered superstitions, but the old teamsters put great stock in it.
   Les was high energy, and so were Cy and Don. All three were generally at a fast walk. I did not drive the team until I was older and more experienced and they were as well.
   During the years before Les owned a tractor with a bucket loader, and a gutter cleaner for the barn, Cy and Don hauled the manure from the tie-up to the fields using a ground driven spreader. More than one old ox man told me that spreading manure is a courage builder for the oxen. Upon leaving the barn, the load is heavy. When you reach the field and engage the apron and beaters, the resistance is great. As the cattle tire, the load lightens, and the resistance becomes less. This builds their courage.
   Les used Cy and Don to pull a disc harrow and to haul stone-boats loaded with stones picked from the tilled ground. Hitched to an ox cart, they hauled sawdust from a nearby portable sawmill site to the barn. And for a number of years they competed in the ox pulls at country fairs throughout New England.
   The job that Les used the oxen for and enjoyed the most was to haul wood. Les had a long list of firewood customers as well as a contract to supply white birch bolt wood to a local turning mill. He cut the firewood to four foot lengths and split it in the woods. It was piled along the edge of the woods road. Eventually, it was hauled on a scoot pulled by the oxen to the home farm where it was restacked to dry. Once dry it was cut to stove length on a saw rig and delivered.  The bolt wood was cut to 52” and was sold as green, round wood. It was piled separately from the firewood. When three cords (the amount Les could fit on his truck) had been cut and stacked the cattle were brought in to forward the wood to the truck.
   After morning milking and enough time had passed for the oxen to digest their breakfast, Cy and Don were yoked. The hinged wooden tailgate, of Les’ twenty- foot long truck body, was dropped down serving as a ramp for the oxen to walk up into the truck. The tailgates were made from hardwood planking. On the surface of the tailgate were 2” wide hardwood cleats running perpendicular to the planks and placed at approximately 8” on center. These cleats provided traction for man and beast when walking up and down the gate. If the tailgate was built as one solid unit, heavy spring, pulley, and cable systems were mounted on each side, making the lifting and lowering much easier. Les’ truck had two hinged tailgates, making them much lighter to handle and quite often this method did not require a spring assist system.
    After climbing up into the truck, the yoked oxen would hang their heads over the four foot sides and turn to face the rear. The untied oxen would ride to the woodlot in this fashion.
   Upon arrival, the split tailgates would be lowered and the team walked down. Then the tailgates were unhinged and set aside. Cy and Don were hooked to a logging scoot that had a cordwood rack mounted on top. They followed Les along the trail to the piles. The empty scoot was turned around, facing out of the woods. Les would drive the oxen up along the side of the pile and with the use of a pulp hook, the wood was loaded. Les would walk to the next pile and simply call the cattle forward. The loading continued until there was a half of a cord or more on the scoot. Once out to the truck, Les would throw as much wood as he could fit on to the rear of the truck body, then climb up and pile it forward. The process was repeated until the truck was fully loaded. A chain was bound across the middle of the load as well as the rear of the load.
   Les drove the truck to the farm, and the cattle still yoked, walked home and waited at the hitching rail to be unyoked. They were groomed, then led to their stalls to be fed and watered. Les would deliver the pulp before afternoon chores.
   On one memorable winter day when Les and the team were deep in the woods forwarding firewood, a fast traveling Nor’easter snowstorm caught them off guard and hit them with great intensity. Visibility dropped below twenty feet. Unhitching from the load, Les was able to guide the team out of the woods. Once in the field he grabbed on to the near ox’s bow and prompted them to head out toward home. He told me the blowing snow was so intense, that there were times when he could not see the openings in the stone walls they were passing through. Cy and Don made their way home without incident, with Les in tow, and stopped at the hitching rail.
   I hope you readers now have an idea of what a ‘knowing pair’ of oxen are capable of.  These work partners are to be treated with respect and dignity and they will do the same for us.
                                                  Tim Huppe

Oxen
​Sharing some thoughts on the importance of keeping alive the skills and the culture of working cattle.
by Tim Huppe

     I grew up on a small family farm in Farmington, New Hampshire. My father worked off the
farm during the week and my mother, in the early years, was a stay at home mom. Dad kept a
small herd of beef cattle and replacement heifers. We had a family cow and hand milked her
twice a day. There was always a pair of working cattle for use in the woods. We raised two hogs
each year. One for our freezer and the other to sell. We kept laying hens and raised meat
rabbits. There was usually a horse or pony for us kids to ride or drive. Our garden was large. My
mother filled several cellar shelves with home canned goods. Also, in the cellar, were two ten
gallon crocks filled with salt pork, a couple hundred pounds of potatoes, a barrel of cider,
apples, and several cords of firewood. We made our own hay.
     I was interested in working steers from a very young age. Before I bought my first pair of bull
calves, I trained a couple of pairs of replacement heifers to work in the yoke. Dad was fine with
this. When it was time to sell the heifers they were quiet and good on a halter.
     It was easy for a kid to get a part time job working on a farm on my road. Within two miles of
my house there were four farmers shipping milk, a large commercial orchard and vegetable
operation, a Christmas tree plantation, commercial lowbush blueberry fields, and a wholesale
plant grower.
     I worked at the largest dairy, on the farm and on the milk delivery route. I also worked for
the wholesale plant grower and the Christmas tree grower. Many of these farmers had kids my
age. We had pick-up ball games, were in the same 4-H club, went to the country fairs together,
attended church youth group, camped and fished, and much more. And of course, every farm
had a pond to swim in. My neighbor friend once said to me, “I grew up thinking that every road
was like ours”. I guess I did as well.
     I started buying and pairing up my own bull calves. I worked my teams on the farm and
competed at the fairs. As a member of the New Hampshire 4-H Working Steer program I was
making friends from across the state and throughout New England, most who had a similar
story to my own. In fact, one of the friends I met at the fairs is my wife of 37 years. Ox
teamsters, 4-H club leaders, parents, and others invested countless hours building the
foundation of the working steer program so that it would last for many years.
     The culture of the ox was rich across New England. On my road alone there were several
good ox men for me to learn from, and many more in the surrounding area. Even the men who
were too old to still be working cattle, would give of their time telling us stories of when
working cattle was economically practical. I remember stories of oxen hauling cordwood to the
brickyards, hauling loads of White Birch bolt wood to the turning mill and returning with wood
ash to be spread on the hay fields. They described in great detail about teams and four ox
hitches hauling saw logs to the portable mills. They shared exciting stories of oxen possessing
more than average power and stamina, greater than average girth, high levels of training and
abilities, and much more. And even more interesting, was the often times colorful descriptions
of the teamsters that trained, worked, and competed with the ox teams.
     After more than 45 years, the New England 4-H Working Steer program is still producing good
teamsters and good young adults. And of course much credit needs to go to the individuals who
continue to compete in open showing and pulling contests at the country fairs for doing their
part to keep the culture alive. If not for them, not only would the excellent level of performance
cease to exist, but I fear the use and the culture of the ox would be all but gone.
Credit needs to also go to the individuals who cared so much about the culture of the ox that
they spent many hours researching and writing down credible and at times nearly forgotten
information to be shared through their books.
     Sadly, the majority of the teamsters, who once worked cattle on the farms, on the road, and
in the woods for financial benefit have long since passed on. Myself, and others of my generation who were fortunate enough to have worked beside these men and women, learned from them, sat on a bale of hay and listened to the true life stories and the legends, have a certain responsibility to pass on the information. If not us, then who?
     I am a teamster, a father and grandfather of teamsters, a former 4-H Working Steer Program
member and leader, an ox yoke maker, a builder of draft animal equipment, and now, a
teacher.
     The use of draft animals goes well beyond the boundaries of New England. And so is the
desire for information on the subject.
     I hope that by sharing with you a bit of my background you will have an understanding of
what fuels my desire and sense of responsibility to pass on the information and the skills that
were so generously passed on to me and my ‘oxen world’ contemporaries. When I teach individuals the technical skills of husbandry, training, and working with cattle, I play a role in opening the door for them to become part of a culture that is so important in our lives.
                                                                                                           Tim Huppe