The oxen.

An ox is not a breed. It is a steer taught to work. The teaching starts when they are calves, long before they are strong enough to pull anything.

It begins with a halter and a rope, learning to lead and to stand. Then a training harness. Then, eventually, a wooden neck yoke and a partner, because oxen work in pairs and have to learn each other as much as they learn the teamster.

We train them here so they can go on to be good, hardy, friendly farm workers somewhere else. That is the whole point of the years it takes.

One of our volunteers wrote about exactly this in the farm journal. She was given a calf named Archie to teach to walk on a lead: "I felt daunted at first, not having any experience with farm life before." By the time she wrote it up, Archie had grown into the yoke. Read her account.

Oxen served the early settlers well for several decades. In the early days of settlement and in the pioneer period they were commonly used as draft animals, drawing the plows, the wagons, the harrows and the sleds, and on the roads hauling produce and grain to market.

They were strong, patient, hardy, and could live on rough food without much shelter. They were also slow. Only a few could walk and draw a plow alongside the horses, and on the road an ox team did well to make three miles an hour.

The oxen are part of the farm, so they are part of a visit. School groups and scout troops meet them; the farm has also hosted training events with visiting ox teamsters.

Want to see them worked, learn the training, or ask about animals? Say so below and we will tell you what is possible and when.