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Meet Homer And Albert The 3.000-Pound Pets
KAREN BUTLER
Maryland Correspondent
FREDERICK, Md. “What
are they?” is the question people
ask Ernie Jackson most frequently
when they see Homer and Albert
“I’ve had people ask me if they
were yaks,” said the Frederick ox
teamster, “they just can’t figure
out what they are, and I like to let
them guess.”
What they are, in fact, are a pair
of mammoth-sized Brown Swiss
steers that were kept around the
farm. Now 12 years old, the pair,
called oxen because they have
been started under yoke, have a
combined weight of more than
6,000 pounds, and stand almost
six feet at the withers. Yet because
they have been pets all their lives,
Homer and Albert are as tame and
gentle as a pair of kittens.
Ernie acquired the steers when
his niece. Daphne Sigler, asked
him if he was interested in a few
bull calves. Daphne and her hus
band Robert milk a herd of regis
tered Brown Swiss cows. Ernie
took three calves with the idea he
would feed and slaughter them.
But this pair were always together,
and, according to Ernie, “I just fell
in love with them. And so I kept
them.” That was the start of a 12
year friendship between Ernie and
his team.
When they were five years old,
Homer and Albert made their
debut at the Great Frederick Fair.
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They were housed in box stalls in
the beef building, where people
could get a good look at them.
They didn’t cause much of a sen
sation at first, Ernie said, because
people didn’t know they were
there. Then a local newspaper did
a small feature on the team. “The
next day, people were asking for
them, they wanted to know where
they were,” said Ernie. That was
the start of an illustrious career for
the oxen.
Word spread quickly about
Homer and Albert, the gentle
team. Now not only are they
booked well in advance for the
Frederick Fair, Montgomery Agri
cultural Fair, ynd the Maryland
State Fair, they have also been
invited to the state fairs in Rich
mond, Virginia and in Delaware.
They attend many community
shows around Maryland, and lead
the parade at the Brown Swiss
Futurity show each August. They
have even been on TV, on the loc
al news and in 1995, on the Wil
lard Scott show nationally.
Each day the oxen eat four bales
of grass hay between the two of
them, and about half of a five
gallong bucket of grain. They are
housed on an 11-acre pasture with
a shed so they can get in out of the
weather. Ernie removes their hal
ters when he turns them out, for
fear they would get caught on
something. Although they are sur
rounded with board fence, “You
Albert, In tl
unhitched.
Er P le Jackson - The Brown Swiss charmed Emle as calves, and
escaped their fate as slaughter animals.
could keep them in with baling
rope, almost,” says Ernie of the
docile Brown Swiss.
They do have rings in their
noses; Ernie put them in when
they were young, to control them
if the vet needed to treat them.
They have brass horn knobs.
Those are primariliy to protect
them from each other when they
are penned together at shows.
Although their huge horns look
intimidating, the animals don’t
use them in an aggressive manner
at all. The only times you really
have to watch them, according to
Ernie, are when they throw their
heads around because of flies, and
when he is grooming them. Once
when Ernie was brushing out
Albert’s coat, Homer started to
rub up against him. He wanted
some attention, too. Within a
minute, Ernie felt himself lifted up
into the air. He tried to reach the
ground with his feet, but couldn’t.
He was suspended in the air by his
belt, which was hooked firmly on
Homer’s horn. Ernie had to swing
himself to the side of the pen,
where he could step up onto a rail,
and finally unhook himself.
“When I brush them now. I tie
them up separately when we’re at
the fairs, ’cause, well, that’s quite
a problem to get off the horn when
your feed are off the ground,” said
Ernie.
Ernie started the team under a
yoke last year for the first time.
“Everyone would ask me, ‘Do you
work them?,’ and I got tired of
saying, no we don’t So I thought I
might as well hook them up. I told
my wife, ‘Well, I’m going over to
put a yoke on them.’ Homer just
stood there, he thought he was in a
headgate,” relates Ernie, “And I
finally got them to move.” Ernie
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round, and Homer, in front, enjoy the pasture after being \
ie bai
made the 60-pound yoke himself.
He had an ox cart custom made by
a man in Leola, and hopes to teach
them to pull it this summer.
Although they look very simil
iar, Ernie has no trouble telling the
two big Brown Swiss apart.
Homer is lighter in color, and big
ger in girth. His horns, at 32
inches, are a full 10 inches shorter
than Albert’s. He is also the tamer
and quieter of the two. “And he’ll
drink his water,” explains Ernie,
“I don’t know why, but Albert,
Ernie removes the yoke from Albert. Made of tour pieces
of wood glued and bolted together, It weighs approximate
ly 60 pounds. Ernie created the yoke himself. The bent
pieces of wood were custom made by a man in Leola.
every time you bring him a bucket
of water, he’ll knock it over. Just
likes to see you carry water, I
guess.”
But Albert only upsets the first
bucket of water you bring him.
After that, he settles down for a
long drink just like his partner
Homer.
Only Albert knows why he
upsets his water bucket. But, after
all, if that’s his 3000-pound
Goliath’s idea of fun, who’s going
to stop him?
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