A new respect for cows UPDATE!! Post #1

[gritsar]

There's no bulls on the place right now, these heifers are too young to be bred. I do like bulls though (maybe in the same way I think roosters are awesome?).
I think the difference between someone's beloved herd of cows and these guys is that these cows are but a few amongst hundreds - maybe thousands - this guy owns. They don't have names, they aren't anyone's pets. He purchases them as calves at the livestock auctions, does their vet care and branding and then turns them out to graze. Someone comes to check on them a couple times a day and they are given supplemental feed in the wintertime. Other than that they aren't used to being around people. Once bred and the calves are born and then taken away at a certain age, the bawling that goes on for about three days could drive you insane.
They'll come up to our yard fence, being nosey, but if you walk out towards them they scatter. They are a business to him, not pets.
I continue to get a big kick out of a bull that lives down the road. This bull is massive, every bit as big as a volkswagon. You can hardly see his head for his massive shoulders. He stays pretty much in one spot all day and a pile of hay is brought to him. He just has this look to him that says he knows he's God's gift to cows.

 

[Katy]

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They like to keep their butts to the wind....especially if it's cold. If it is cold they'll stand with their sides facing the sun to help keep them warmer. Maybe that's what you're seeing.

 

[Marlinchaser]

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They like to keep their butts to the wind....especially if it's cold. If it is cold they'll stand with their sides facing the sun to help keep them warmer. Maybe that's what you're seeing.

I was gonna say they were all watching the sunset? Lets go with Katys Idea since she posted first.

 

[Tala]

The most entertaining thing that I've noticed about cows herd units, is that once the calves are a bit older, one of the cows will be designated "babysitter" and the others can go off to graze while one keeps the group of youngsters. What's even more impressive is that they have a rotation about who is on duty each day.
We had an older cow named Socks who was too old to have her own calf, but she still took turns for babysitting duty anyway.

We had about 8 cows & 1 bull, owned by my grandparents and aunt/uncle, and they weren't "4H kid tame" but they were still much more pets than livestock. My aunt/uncle kept them on their property and we all had beef ya know. Somehow it was determined that my aunt became allergic to beef....anyway, we don't raise cattle anymore. I would raise my own now that I have my own money, but I don't have the land.

 

[gritsar]

I updated for anyone interested in the outcome.

 

[Southernbelle]

Thanks for updating. I wondered how things worked out for her. I'm glad the heifer is okay, but I'm sorry the bull is dead. Wow!

 

[gritsar]

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I'm pretty sad about the bull. There is no way to describe how magnificent he was. The picture of health and huge. Useless for all but one thing, but still....

 

[LizFM]

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I'm pretty sad about the bull. There is no way to describe how magnificent he was. The picture of health and huge. Useless for all but one thing, but still....

Yeah...but when you want that one thing, it's a pretty important thing right then

Cows will take a liking to certain people and not others. When we farmed with my in-laws (they have a dairy, among other things) there was one old cow DH called "Fiddums" (their cows were numbered, not named...she was #50). Fiddums used to walk up to DH or his brother in the cow lot, and lean on them. They'd just stand there in the lot leaning on each other a while. She didn't like my MIL or me at all (we did most of the milking). Every once in a while, a cow in a herd will just 'take a shine' to a person, when the rest of the herd is not all that interested in people.

My uncle had a pet Guernsey when he was a kid. She followed him all over the farm. She was also the one that would come up to the gate and bawl to be milked (she had to be milked more than twice a day she gave so much).

Of course, dairy cows are bottle fed and handled alot by people. Stock cows that aren't handled a lot will be afraid of people because whenever they do get handled it's unpleasant (rounding up, squeeze chutes, vaccinations, worming, taking calves to wean). If you go toward them they'll scatter but if you are sort of minding your own business in the area they'll get used to you. I've known farmers whose stock cows followed them around like dairy cows but those were usually registered breeding stock that were handled with care and affection.

We used to hate it when one of the guys helped us milk and got all know-it-all and macho and rough and impatient with the cows. The cows get all upset and start kicking and get jammed up in the aisles of the barn. Plus milk production goes down. More than one guy has been banished from the milk barn (probably on purpose)

 

[Goose and Fig]

Thanks for the update! I'm glad she's ok- but it's sad about the others. Hope they figure it out soon. I hope we can get a dairy cow someday, and hope she's friendly!
I love the way they look this time of year- all wooly

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Some say cows aren't stupid...Angus are just plain crazy-off-the-wall BONKERS.