Shoes for bullocks on gravel or bitumen

[mathuranatha]

G’day from Australia[down under to Yanks] Wondering what shoes are used in different part of the world for bullocks that work on hard surfacers daily??

I haven’t been out on the road for a few years now , but sometimes we used to travel around for 4-5 months continuously, with 3 or 4 wagons and 4 or five bullocks .Strapping 20 shoes [home made steel bullock sandals]on 20 hoofs every morning.

Iv heard they make them from old truck tires in asia .I tried that for a couple of years but preferred steel in the end .

They make plastic ones in New Zealand , but they are expensive , rub a lot and dont last long at all.Meant for cows on grass with a saw foot .

They nail them on in India .

What do they use in your neck of the woods??

—Mat

[bivol]

hi!
don’t know if my response’ll help but here goes. bullock shoes are usually made of iron or steel but there are also alternative methods to nailing them like glueing them to a toe. also, i don’t know why u use sandals on so many bullocks when used regulary. it just isn’t practical. shoeing, when done properly doesn’t hurt cattle. maybe it would be more practical to just glue them. i have a book about oxen, and i’d recommend it to anyone intrested in oxen (oxen:a teamsters guide, drew conroy) and it has a part about ox shoes

i live in croatia, balkans. there, and especially in serbia, a neighbouring country, oxen can still be found working in mountain areas. they are also shod, probably with iron shoes. also, i heard that somewhere in indoasia and far east water buffalos sometimes wear rice straw shoes.

[CharlyBonifaz]

hallo mathuranatha,

Strapping 20 shoes [home made steel bullock sandals]on 20 hoofs every morning.

how did you fix them to the hooves? how did you fix the rubber ones? Glue? Nail? Strap?
what’s the workload of your oxen? freightwaggons? Lumber? agricultural?
curious for it seems hard to find a smith that can still work cattle especially if we’re talking regularly…..
elke

[Author]

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