Logging with horses, oxen, and donkeys. Logging class for Tillers International in Michigan
Вставка
- Опубліковано 6 бер 2024
- Part two of the logging class with Tillers International in Michigan. Cutting and skidding walnut using horses, oxen, and donkeys. It was a great class with great people! #horselogging #logging #drafthorses #chainsaw #forestmanagement #workhorse #jonsered #husqvarna #oxen #blackwalnut #donkeys #loggingclass #tillersinternational
Great video
Thanks for the visit
Nice logs
Thanks
Why is Tillers using the ancient and cumbersome yoke on oxen? They certainly are aware of better options . Small Farmer's Journal depicted and explained some of those many years ago. UA-cam also has videos showing alternatives to yokes, for example the three part cattle collar.
Their pattern could definitely be improved. Tillers does have and use three pad systems. I’ve heard your name mentioned there as the expert on that system.
It might look crude, but I prefer a very well made and fitted neck yoke with hickory bows. If made and fitted expertly, like Tim Huppe, or the late Nathan Hine, I don’t feel it can be beat for comfort. The key is expertly made, and fitted yoke. I bet not one in twenty teams is wearing a good yoke, and bows. Even fewer are fitted properly for width or pinning the bows. Next is the point of draft being adjusted correctly for the height of hitch you are hooking onto.
The wooden yoke looks like simplicity itself, but needs to be perfectly executed, or you get subpar results. Quite similar to horse harnesses; most people think a yoke that is too big is a good fit. Also similar to a horse collar, it needs to be a comfortable contour and smooth as can be. I’ll agree that tillers can go a long ways towards making cattle comfortable, but I think it can still be achieved with the style yoke they use. Perhaps also with a different system, but I don’t know enough to comment on that.
I am certainly not an expert, but in my youth in Bavaria I saw a lot of cattle hitched in different styles, but never with the neck yoke. It was deemed not to be cattle friendly. Years ago I advised a lady from one of the New England states (unfortunately right now I can't remember her name) and sent her pictures. She then used the three pad collar and was very content with it. In the 19th century already Bavarian agricultural scientists found that the pulling power of cattle could be greatly improved with that kind of harness instead of the yoke.@@BrandtAinsworth-ik5fm
As an ox guy that pair of swiss don't seem like they'd pull your 🐓out of a lard pail.
That’s a terrible place for your 🐓. Haha. Thanks for the new expression.