FARMINGTON — Gerald Jordan of Parsonsfield broke Farmington Fair’s sweepstakes record for the most weight pulled by a team of oxen.

On Wednesday night, he coaxed his team to haul 12,350 pounds for 6 feet. Sweepstakes pulling allows any team owner to enter, regardless of the team’s size.

Concrete blocks, each weighing 500 pounds, are pulled the 6-foot distance, and if they complete the challenge successfully, the owner can continue to the next round with more weight added. The competition continues until one team remains. Jordan’s team smashed the previous record of 10,500 pounds, the highest in more than 30 years of recordkeeping.

Radar, at 2,800 pounds, and Neil, at 2,900 pounds, are about 10 years old. Radar is new to the Jordan family.

“We just got him a week ago, because our other ox has arthritis,” Peg Jordan said. “They pull together well, and we’re pretty pleased that they did so well.”

During the 20 years the Jordans have owned oxen, they have phoned Herbert “Bud” Mosher Jr. of Temple when their animals have outgrown their yokes. Mosher has been making oxen yokes for most of his adult life, often crafting 30 a year.

“My father and I learned together, and we learned from Mason Norton,” Mosher said. “They honored Mason at the fair for all the years he’s been doing this.”

Mosher is a fixture at the pulling competitions at the Farmington Fair. He measures distances after teams have pulled a sled of cement blocks within a fixed length of time. His daughter Trisha keeps track of the scores of each entry in competitions, and his brother Terry is the superintendent of the competitions.

Winter months can be slow, Mosher said, but that is when he finds time to work in his wood shop. He takes about 14 hours to produce a finished yoke.

“We had to do a trial-and-error to learn to steam the yellow birch and bend it into the bow that fits under the neck,” he said. “If you don’t do it right, the wood will break before it gets into that horseshoe shape.”

He has been making yokes for 32 years, and he worked with his father for 15 years before that, he said. His customers are all over New England, but most live in Maine, and many he’s known for a long time.

“I think I have made about 400 since I started,” he said. “Things are a little slow right now, but I’m not in it to get rich.”

Young oxen can be broken in as a team around 4 to 6 months of age, he said.

The bow must be adjustable to accommodate the first year’s growth. A yoke rests directly on the necks of the team, and he uses a band saw to round the edges and make the wooden beam fit comfortably.

The bows pass under the necks of the oxen and hold them in place as they pull. The bow ends pass through holes in the beam above their necks, and he fastens each tip in place with a bow pin. The distance between the two tips is the measurement, or size, of the bow.

The oxen push with the top of their necks directly against the yoke and their shoulders against the upper part of the bow. A well-fitted yoke will allow an ox team to pull efficiently; a poorly fitted yoke will be uncomfortable and could hurt the animals.

The teams are full-grown within three years, so Mosher may have to make a new set more than once for the same owner. He uses yellow birch and paints the finished product to seal the wood and allow it to dry very slowly. He also welds the rings and other metal parts. He can make a single unit, which he calls a crooked yoke, but rarely does an owner ask for one.

“I was pretty pleased to know the yoke that I made was on the team that broke the fair record,” Mosher said. “That really made me happy.”