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4 - H - Dairy - Beef - Horses - Goats - Llamas - Poultry - Rabbits - Sheep - Swine
Pat
Norton became Assistant Oxen Superintendent in 1982, and Superintendent in 1986.
Leon Smith helped him get started. They thought at one time the steers and oxen
were going to disappear, but there are more and more every year. Norton started
coming to the Fair with his father in the early 1940s and has fond memories
of the "oxen, steers, horses, and the hotdog stand down on the corner by
the racetrack".
Now as Oxen Superintendent, he has to house, weigh and enter for competition over 500 head of show steers and oxen during Fair Week. He has a two-day steer and oxen show, 15 pulling classes, and two log scooting contests. He is ably assisted by his wife Eleanor Norton (who he says he'd be lost without) and Gordon and Marlene Robinson.
We call our steer and ox show
the biggest one in the world. Pat Norton reported that in 1998 there were 122
pair of pulling oxen and 150 pair of show steers, a total of 544 animals. They
come from all over New England, New York State, and occasionally Canada. There
are usually 100 pair in the grand parade. Premiums are awarded for Shorthorns,
Herefords, Devon, Holstein, and Crossbred.
All pulling oxen pairs have to weigh at least 900 pounds per pair. When they
pull, they pull a pound and a quarter of rock to a pound of animal, or 1-_ times
their weight. The President's Trophy is awarded to the steer and ox teamster,
(boy or girl) 9-16 years of age, who pulls the farthest with the least amount
of the goad. This does not necessarily mean the one who wins the contest.
Most non-farm people ask, sooner or later, "What is the difference between a steer and an ox?" Pat Norton patiently explained:"The best way I can tell you is that a steer is a young ox which hasn't been castrated. Usually they are castrated at six months to two years. An ox is just an old steer that has been castrated."
Roy Andrews added, "They are actually called steers here up to three years old. Anything over three years old is an ox. Steers can be castrated at any age, but they are usually castrated as calves. If they're not castrated, they are bulls." If bulls are castrated later in life, they are called stags, according to Phil Andrews. "Some of these animals are big steers," said Roy Andrews.
"Yes," agreed Norton.
"Ernest Hawes had a pair of ox recently that weighed 6048 pounds. That's
three tons for one pair!"
Bill Haynes, Sr. was an assistant to Pat Norton for a few years before he was
assigned to the racing department, and he has had steers all his life. An interesting
note from him is that show steers and oxen were always shown by age groups.
There was no way to verify their ages, so the classes were questionable and
uneven. He set up weight classes at his show at the Oxford County Fair in Oxford,
and it proved so much better that almost all the fairs in Maine now use that
classification. He and Norton changed Fryeburg's show to this standard.
At that same time Fryeburg had a manure problem with so many steers and oxen coming to the Fair and just being tied to the trucks. Phil Andrews asked what they should do to remedy the situation. Use of space was of concern, so in a report after the Fair, Haynes recommended building a double-wide barn so that fair-goers could walk down one side and back the other to view the animals which would all be housed inside. This idea was adopted, and now we have two double-wide barns to accommodate the influx of livestock, one for steers and one for beef.
What
is the difference between show oxen and regular oxen? According to Bill
Haynes, Sr., "It's the Three Cs: Condition, Confirmation, and Competition.
They are all basically the same animals, only you pick out the best ones for
show, and the work animals normally are not of as good confirmation, and they
aren't probably in as good condition. The draft ones do quite a lot of pulling
and they are muscled out. They don't have to be too classy to look at to pull,
so that's really the difference."
Steer and ox people are real
good showmen today. The general public is quite interested in these big animals.
There always seem to be some youngsters with a pair of steers hooked to a cart,
either hauling manure or shavings or something else, and the public always appreciates
that. Show steers are not shod, but quite a few pulling oxen are shod with steel
shoes, which is quite an art and always draws a big crowd.
The quality of animals has
improved a great deal. A man with pulling oxen has to do his homework. He exercises
the animals, works them on drags, and watches their diet (much more than he
does his own). A pair of oxen that weighs three tons will eat a bale of hay
in the morning and a bale at night, plus a gallon of grain.
The animals are weighed just once for the week to determine what pulling class
they will be in, so they are weighed at 6 a.m. in the morning, usually before
they are fed. The owner knows just how much a pail of water weighs, how much
the grain weighs, and how much the hay weighs.
Arnold Chick, a long-time camper,
was interviewed recently on his 84th birthday. His favorite part of the Fair
is the pulling, and he especially liked to watch the local entries. He said,
"Sometimes it was more fun watching them than the other fellows. I remember
one old fellow pulling cattle. He hooked his cattle on and just as soon as they
got ready, he took his goad and started hitting the ground and hollered, 'Git
you Red Devils!' just as loud as he could. And the cattle, they kept right on
going the whole length of the ring. And the fellow looked up and yelled 'Whoa!'.
And he ran down to the other end and stopped them, but they were already stopped
because they couldn't go any further. There was a fence down there, and the
crowd stopped them. He did the same thing with the cattle coming back. I never
got so much kick in my life as I did watching that! And he wasn't doing it to
put on a show. He got so excited I guess."
