Do Oxen have a purpose in the modern day?

Let me start this thread with the fact that I know VERY little about ox and oxen. There is a gentleman locally who keeps a team and always has them at the county fair and parades. Outside of the neatness of ox, I am wondering if they make sense for a homesteader today or not.

My understanding is that oxen are a living breathing powerful 'engine' to haul/drag/move things. Are there specific areas or terrain that oxen might have an advantage over a modern convenience such as tractors?

Perhaps someone who already keeps cattle or other livestock might find oxen convenient due to having feed/housing/care already on site that could be utilized for all creatures which might make them desirable?

Long story short, help me convince my wife that keeping ox would be super cool and valid.

we still have people (mostly elderly) who plow with horses and oxen. Not many, but some. Generally the properties are too small to merit a tractor, or located in such a situation that a tractor might not make it in (access through a forest, rocky slope, etc) or would be risky (i saw a field that was really steep once).
There is a tradition of mule and oxen trains here that is kept alive for show purposes too.
I would love some oxen, but unfortunately I know from training horses (and dogs, sigh) that this kind of skill takes a while to train and needs to be exercised often. In all that spare time I don't have. Maybe I could teach the dog to plow my garden, which would be the ultimate multiple-birds-one-stone thing.....

I have no experience with them, but I want to share these videos from one of my favourite youtube channels which might be of interest.

The first one is only available in Spanish but has subtitles. The others have an option for an AI generated translation.

The carters and their hard life in the mountains. Taming of oxen for the transport of wood


Handmade YOKE with a WOODEN TRUNK. Manual carving of this agricultural piece by an expert


Plowing the Field with Cows. The Yoke and Other Traditional Farming Tools | Documentary


1500 kg stone roller pulled by oxen to flatten land as in the past

Tereza Okava wrote: I would love some oxen, but unfortunately I know from training horses (and dogs, sigh) that this kind of skill takes a while to train and needs to be exercised often. In all that spare time I don't have. Maybe I could teach the dog to plow my garden, which would be the ultimate multiple-birds-one-stone thing.....

My bold. Unless your have uses for the same or similar skills multiple times per year, this would be tricky. If there is wood to be moved in the winter, crops to be sown in the spring, goods to go to the markets weekly summer and fall, and you had will to do this rather than just jumping in a truck, they could be no less useful, because I'm sure the tasks still need doing, but fossil fuels don't need to be fed and watered daily!

Teaching your dog to plow would be a neat trick! I always prefer to have "pets with benefits"!

**cough cough** goats???
training your goats to pull things

Austin's mum used to have a pair of castrated male goats that helped her around the farm - called Port and Starboard, naturally...



Here's a link to some more info about them , including stuff about harness, breeding and training.

I have no experience whatsoever in this domain. My grandma told me that a good team of oxen can work wonders, and for a long time, especially in hard to access terrain, can turn better in tight corners, so I assume that they would be better suited for small properties.
But as has been mentioned elsewhere in the thread, working with oxen requires special skills. It is not just the handling in the field, but raising, training, feeding etc. as well as all the tools of the trade, the yoke, the leather harnesses...
If someone is interested in doing this, I would suggest approaching our friends the Amish, and paying them handsomely to do these chores for you before attempting to wrangle a team of oxen on your plot.
Tomorrow is the Spring Equinox, so it's a bit late to try working your plot this way for this year anyway.
The Amish have always been of sound advice in my experience. That would be the way to go in my humble opinion.

This guy had a fair bit to say about using them in a market garden setting:
https://substack.com/@cattleculture
They seem less common then horses, possibly because they are less charismatic. But if you are keeping cows for milk, another use for them makes sense. My understanding is that they are hardier than horses too. And cheaper.