City boy checking in.
So, this one time out on a hike in a semi-rural area, the trail opened out on a grassy riverbank kind of place, and there were a dozen or so cows between me and the path onwards.
Now, I mostly grasp which end of a cow the grass goes in, but that’s about my limit; I have no real idea how they operate IRL.
I ended up carefully edging my way past them and gave them as much space as I possibly could, and got extremely stared at by all of them, who probably thought I was nuts.
Just out of curiosity - how careful did I need to be? Can you just like walk through the middle of them, or would that be asking for trouble?
Depends very heavily on the cows. Cattle rancher here. Be careful about it and *most cattle are OK to walk among.
Generally speaking, most farm cattle are timid towards people. They may come check you out and encircle you as a herd, but will usually scurry away if you move suddenly, and don’t care if you’re just in the field with them. They are herbivorous herd/prey animals, after all. The cattle my parents raise, perfectly safe to walk through. Hell the calves will often come up and sniff you out and rub up against you.
Some remote range cattle can be more wild. They might take off running if they see you within a half mile, or they might come running towards you if they deem you a threat.
The real danger often lies with bulls (hanging balls and huge shoulder) or cows with young calves (<1mo old). Both of these can be very unpredictable.
I’ve interacted with some bulls that were as gentle as can be and some that would rip your skin off if you weren’t on the other side of a panel. You should never go into a paddock with an unknown bull, ever.
And even the most timid cow can start squaring up if she has a very young calf still in need of protection.
It’s something you mostly have to learn how to read. Cows are expressive. They have body language. They speak with their head and their tails, and they look with their ears. For me it’s easy to tell if a cow is safe to approach, but it is a learned skill.
When you approach cows, make noise. Nothing racocious but just talking in a firm tone to them is enough. Make sure the herd olknows your approaching long before you get close enough to be a danger, never suprise a cow. Always keep a distance of minimum 30 feet unless they approach you themselves out of curiosity.
A head and/or tail held very high means they are alert and focused on you, this usually means they are nervous and about to fight-or-flight. Back off slowly and try not to turn away.
If a herd dispersed while grazing begins to bunch up together, that also means they’re getting nervous. Just avoid the bunch and walk away from whatever direction they’re heading.
A head held low while looking at you, or still grazing means they are relaxed. They dont usually lower their head to “charge” like in the cartoons until they’re already moving. You’re new to the field so they’ll always look at you. Move smoothly and steadily, they won’t bother you.
Me as a kid: running away from a curious cow
The cow, running behind me: “wait, I want to check you out! What are we running away from anyways?”
Haha yeah they’ll do that. They can be insufferably curious.
I remember one time one of our border collie pups (not old enough to work but just getting introduced to the herd) got away from my mom. The cows all came over to check her out and she took off with the whole herd right after her!
She wasn’t that interested in working much after that…
Me and my sister got encircled once by about ten cows while we wanted to visit our pony which was on the same absurdly big pasture. As they closed in, our little Shetland pony raced in to our rescue and showed them who’s boss in seconds. That was surprising in multiple ways. Especially as I didn’t expect ponies to be that protective to their scratch givers.
I hope your dog was able to overcome the trauma with time and therapy 😅
Small horses, like small dogs, are herd animals, are utterly convinced they are ten times their actual size, and will show this off at any opportunity.
With both horses and cows, the stupidest most effective way to make them come see you is turning your back to them amd fiddle with your hands while looking busy.
That’s how curious they are. I really like that trait of character.
If OP walks there frequently then he could also start to befriend them. Offer them some grass, give them some pets & head scratches. Cows are pretty social and usually friendly animals. So if you’re nice to them, they’ll be nice to you too, but most importantly learn that you’re no threat to them.
Fun fact, cow licks feel like being rubbed by low-grade sandpaper.
I love this post. Thanks for sharing all that!