Ox

An ox (pl.: oxen), also known as a bullock (in British, Australian, and Indian English), is a large bovine, trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle, because castration inhibits testosterone and aggression, which makes the males docile and safer to work with. Cows (intact females) or bulls (intact males) may also be used in some areas.

Oxen are used for ploughing, for transport (pulling carts, hauling wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly in low-impact, select-cut logging.

Oxen are usually yoked in pairs. Light work such as carting household items on good roads might require just one pair, while for heavier work, further pairs would be added as necessary. A team used for a heavy load over difficult ground might exceed nine or ten pairs.

Oxen are thought to have first been harnessed and put to work around 4000 BC.

Working oxen are taught to respond to the signals of the teamster, bullocky or ox-driver. The signals are given by oral command and body language, reinforced by a goad, whip or a long pole, which also serves as a measure of length (see rod). In pre-industrial times, teamsters were known for their loud voices and forthright language.^{[citation needed]}

Verbal commands for draft animals vary widely throughout the world. In North America, the most common commands are:

In the New England tradition, young castrated cattle selected for draft are known as working steers and are painstakingly trained from a young age. Their teamster makes or buys as many as a dozen yokes of different sizes for each animal as it grows. The steers are normally considered fully trained at the age of four and only then become known as oxen.

A tradition in south-eastern England was to use oxen (often Sussex cattle) as dual-purpose animals: for draft and beef. A plowing team of eight oxen normally consisted of four pairs aged a year apart.