Agriculture and Farming Atlas

How The World Is Fed
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

Implements and Machines

Yoke

Power, Irrigation and Farm Infrastructure Implements

A yoke is a wooden beam fitted between a pair of oxen or other draft animals so that they can pull a load together, transferring the animals' combined pulling force to a plough, cart or other implement. Horses, mules, donkeys and water buffalo, as well as oxen, have all been worked in yokes across different farming traditions. The word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root meaning to join or unite, a root shared by German Joch, Latin iugum and Sanskrit yuga, reflecting how old and how widespread the practice of yoking draft animals together has been.

Facts
Partially Attested
Origin
Oxen are thought to have first been harnessed and put to work around 4000 BC; the yoke was designed to work best with the neck and shoulder anatomy of cattle. 2
The source dates the first harnessing of oxen to work, about 4000 BC, and says the yoke was designed to fit cattle anatomy; it gives no date or place for the invention of the yoke itself.
Classification
Power Source
Animal-Drawn 1
Connections

Associated With

Horse Collar, Implements and Machines

the rigid horse collar was developed to replace yoke-style harnessing for horses, because a yoke pressed on a horse throat and windpipe in a way it does not on an ox

Powered By

Working Animal, Concepts

Entity-backed identity for the power-source enum value this implement already carries, resolved to an agriculture concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The power-source fact itself stays on the implement unchanged.

Sources
1. Yoke (Wikipedia)
  • Opening definition
    A yoke is a wooden beam used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do.
  • Etymology section
    The word "yoke" derives from Proto-Indo-European *yugóm (yoke), from root *yewg- (join, unite).
  • Opening definition, power source sentence
    A yoke is a wooden beam used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do.
View the Source
2. Ox (Wikipedia)
Introductory section, draft use paragraph
Quote, Introductory section, draft use paragraph
Oxen are thought to have first been harnessed and put to work around 4000 BC.
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.