Donnie Bisbee of Clayhill Farm grew up showing oxen in 4-H. Then it became a family affair.
“I showed oxen with my wife before the kids were born, and then the kids got into it,” said Bisbee of Chesterfield, MA.
His wife Faith Bisbee coordinates with Hilltown Misfits 4-H Club leader Sherry Whitmore, also of Chesterfield, to manage the oxen part of the club.
The Bisbees currently own three teams of oxen. Their son Carson, 13, works his own team, Taco and Loki, six-year-old Belgian Blue and Milking Shorthorn crosses. Their daughter Brooke, 11, works her team, Harvey and Louis, eight-month-old Chianina and Brown Swiss crosses. Carson recently acquired a second team of Holsteins, aged three weeks as of late June.
They also raise Milking Shorthorns. “The first Milking Shorthorn I bought for my sister in 2009 for her graduation present,” said Donnie. She named the cow Lily, and Lily resided at the farm in Chesterfield.
“That cow is the matriarch of all the rest of the Shorthorns we own. All but one is related to her,” said Donnie.
They currently have four milking cows and three heifers. Their Milking Shorthorns reside at the Fletcher Farm in Southampton, MA, so their milk can be utilized as the cows produced more than the family could use. The Bisbees also raise and drive teams of Belgians, giving hayrides at a multitude of venues. They connected with Fletcher Farm by giving hayrides there each autumn.
They are also mainstays at annual agricultural fairs including Heath Fair in Heath, MA, Sheep & Woolcraft Fair in Cummington, MA, and Greenfield, MA’s Festival of Lights. They compete at many fairs, including Cummington Fair, Northampton’s Three County Fair and Littleville Fair.
The Bisbees grow their own hay to feed their animals and have already harvested one load this year. The fields were ready early and Donnie expects no problem with hay this year. They harvest one large hayfield of their own, six other fields in Chesterfield and one in Goshen.
Regarding the Hilltown Misfits 4-H Club, Donnie said, “There are more 4-H’ers than there have been in a long time. We haven’t had a lot of kids for a lot of years. Don’t know what caused it. We have a lot of people interested now – parents that had oxen” who want to pass on that knowledge to their kids. Though they are a lot of work, some people find oxen easier to work with than horses.
The club features extra activities: traveling to Westfield, giving logging demonstrations and having adults show kids how to pull logs out of the woods, which everyone enjoys.
For the fourth year, the Bisbees will partake in the Ox Show & Pull at the 162nd Annual Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Fair in August.
Donnie said, “The kids love it. They love explaining to people about their animals. A lot of city people don’t know anything about animals, haven’t a clue. The kids are really good talking about it.” Likewise, fair attendees are eager to learn, soaking up information like the sun.
The teamsters know each other. The Martha’s Vineyard Ox Show is organized by teamster Melanie Brundage of Douglas, MA. She said, “It’s a small community. We are very fortunate. If you’re interested in learning about oxen, New England is where it has traditionally stayed. Go over the border to a county fair in New York, you’d be hard-pressed to find an ox pull or working steer show. In New England, we are blessed with many mentors. If you need somebody to teach you to train a calf or how to make a yoke or where to purchase ox-related equipment, you can find someone.”
Earl Gray with oxen and plow held by Carson Bisbee at the working oxen demonstration in Shelburne, MA. Photo by Laura Rodley
Melanie was the main speaker at a free working oxen demonstration on June 29 at the nonprofit Fabric of Life, founded by Becky Ashenden, in Shelburne, MA. Presenters included the Bisbees and other teamsters.
As the mission at Fabric of Life is to highlight aspects and the skills of traditional ways of farming, the event included demonstrations highlighting the way early settlers might have plowed their fields. Melanie covered the history and breeds of oxen. There was an oxen line-up, camaraderie and a lunch. The Bisbees drove their team of horses.
Melanie is a registered nurse who raises oxen as a hobby. She was introduced to farming when she married her husband Scott Brundage, whose family raised beef cattle in Uxbridge, MA. He had grown up very involved in 4-H. A fellow member pulled oxen competitively, sparking her own interest in oxen.
Now the couple own four acres in Douglas, MA, and raise their own oxen. She’s training a four-month-old-Holstein x Normande cross team that she has had for six weeks, driving them with a lash or goad stick.
“We’ve got a trail through the woods. I take them through the woods daily to socialize them with our neighbors, cars, motorcycles, etc. Last time out, we encountered four squawking guinea hens,” she said. “The off steer was taken aback by the guinea hens, took a second look and he balked. The nigh steer was focused on me.”
At the event, Scott worked their five-year-old Brown Swiss, Buck, who weighs 2,100 pounds under a single yoke. He was once part of a team but the other ox “didn’t cut the mustard,” so they don’t have him anymore.
“A single is something different for people who can’t afford a team,” said Scott, noting an ox under a single yoke can still haul logs, scoots (bobsleds) and stone boats, but plowing is more difficult.
Other teamsters at the event included Sandy Eggers from Danielson, CT; Justin and Isaac Riendeau from Connecticut; Hilltown Misfit 4-H’er Owen Laurenzo from Belchertown, MA; and the youngest teamster, eight-year-old Autumn Turnbull of Feeding Hills, MA.
For more info about Fabric of Life workshops, access fabric-of-life.org. For oxen info, Melanie recommends inquiring at your local 4-H via mass4hfoundation.org, reaching out to teamsters on the Facebook page “All Things Oxen” or checking out the Draft Animal Power Network at draftanimalpower.org.
There’s also the Burke, VT-based Association of New England Ox Teamsters at aneot.net.
by Laura Rodley
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