The Ecomusée d’Alsace near Ungersheim in France celebrated its 30th anniversary and the festivities were launched Thursday, June 28th, with a procession headed by two of Phillippe Kuhlmann’s oxen, Marco and Bachi, pulling a cart, a two-horse team in front of a flatbed wagon, followed by two old-timer tractors (a Lanz-Bulldog and an Algaier), wending their way from the Upper Rhine General Council in Colmar the 38 kilometers to the Ecomusée. This unusual caravan was warmly set on its way by Charles Buttner, present Haut-Rhine Council General President, and Henri Goetschy, former president. The director of the Ecomusée, Eric Jacob, noted that it was a symbolic procession uniting the three main partners responsible for the museum: the Friends’ Association, represented by President Jacques Rumpler, who joined in the long walk, Jean-Claude Mensch, the Mayor of Ungersheim, whose town has given every possible support and encouragement to the Ecomusée since its beginnings, and Monsieur Buttner, President of the Upper-Rhine General Council.

The breed’s coat is usually spotted, black and white, but can run from nearly all black or white, with rare examples of brown and white, one of which Phillippe harnessed for us. He cherishes the quality of their black hooves, extremely hard and resistant, as well as necessitating very little care, which makes them an outstanding working breed and national policy is indeed supportive to keep this breed's numbers up sufficiently. Anne-Catherine and Phillippe process their own cheeses, both from cows and goats, as well as adding to income through rental of their holiday chalet rooms, so it is a multi-activity farm, as are many small-holdings in France. We were joined there by many of their friends and neighbours: the musicians who played including Anne-Catherine and her alpine horn, as well as the saddler Jean-Claude Mann and the builder of Phillippe’s new machine.

All of this is possible with the double head yoke only. The experiment indicated that there was one articulation too many and the resulting rotation meant this needed to be eliminated. In any case, the pushing effort made by the animals was very revealing, as slightly too much power from the left ox meant a distinct veer to the right, but the animals eventually managed to cope during their work day. The onlookers were hardly idle, many of them participating in all the manoeuvres and two of them immediately constructing a second, straight and simple beam from some logged wood near the farmhouse, so it was possible to try this out as well.

One of the other highlights of the day was to have Phillippe guide us through a successive series of head yokes, from the older Alsatian double headyoke with bulky, cushioned head pads, requiring considerable protection for the ears, on to the new and longer versions he had constructed, that were successful, then on to the same type of yoke with the cushioning attached and finally, to the very latest thick felt version. These pads are likewise entirely attached to the yoke, straps and buckles included, and provide an impressive speeding up of yoking time. Phillippe also had the yokes reinforced by metal bars to strengthen the area of the beam hole, which is vulnerable to wear and breakage.

We spent Saturday and Sunday at the Ecomusée d’Alsace, thoroughly enjoying their generous hospitality and noting that the director as well as many of the volunteers and animators speak German, so that discussions were especially rich. Saturday was a major day at the museum and we met in the morning to get the oxen ready for their participation in the celebrations, which included pulling various carts and wagons. They also had to present themselves for the live coverage on local television. Phillippe had brought his Marco and Bachi, four and a half years old, and still slightly tired from their nearly-forty-km walk unshod on Thursday. Phillippe showed us that their hooves were not all too worn, as a cue the telltale “black line” indicating there was still plenty of room to go. He made a point of having walked them on softer ground whenever that was possible in their procession through the villages along the way. André Kammerer brought his own six-year-old Vosges oxen along to hitch up, along with one other ox on loan to the museum.

At the end of Saturday's outdoor work, when we ox drovers** met in the volunteers’ kitchen for our discussion, both the Director, Eric Jacob, and the President of the Ecomusée Friends’ Association, Jacques Rumpler, came by to say that the museum would be honored to offer its premises as a venue, a future home for all European ox drovers to meet in. We discussed a strategic plan*** (see below) to bring cattle draught, as well as working animals in general and the equipment innovations they need, to the forefront of a discussion in sustainable agriculture. The conversation included ways to improve efficiency of our meetings in promoting communication of these intangible skills and skillholders and how to raise the awareness of the spectrum of animal-power users, from what we all respectfully call “hobby” farmers to people like Anne-Catherine and Phillippe at the other end, working entirely with animal draught. This also includes farmers like Christine Arbeit and Jo Durand in the Loire-Atlantique, André Kammerer in Alsace, people like Michaela and Gerhard Döring who have undertaken self-sustained farming with their Grauvieh (grey Raetian cattle), staff from museums, historical sites or theme parks like Richard Dalton or Laurent Martin, who do part of their landscape maintenance or farm with animal power, loggers, many of whom use horses and cattle to make a living, and Anne Wiltafsky, who does hands-on research in cattle behavior, even combining work with art in her Cow School (http://www.kuhschule.com/)