Calves will use a variety of high-pitched bleats and bawls to alert their mothers that they are in distress. Whether they have become separated from the herd, are injured or hungry, or sense danger nearby, calves will make plaintive cries to express their distress. With a little observation, it's easy to see cattle have a vocabulary that extends far beyond the basic moo.
Cattle vocabulary includes a variety of sounds which, when coupled with specific behaviors, express a variety of thoughts, feelings and emotions. A cow can tell you if she's sick, cold, scared, curious, playful, frightened or defensive. Understanding the language of cows could be the key to keeping you safe around them, or to providing better care for your own cattle.
By using the site, you agree to the uses of cookies and other technology as outlined in our Policy, and to our Terms of Use. A Bunch of Bull Even for the most experienced cattleman, bulls can be dangerous and unpredictable. Cows in Distress In October , police dispatchers in Newbury, Massachusetts received numerous phone calls reporting a disturbance at a local dairy farm.
Cattle under duress show signs by bellowing, butting, or kicking. Behavioral indicators like these are always useful signs that the environment needs to be improved. In some cases, the way animals behave is the only clue that stress is present.
During mating, threat, or investigation, the tail hangs away from the body. When galloping, the tail is held straight out, and a kink can be observed when the animal is in a bucking, playful mood. By virtue of their size and disposition, bulls may be considered as one of the most dangerous of domestic animals. Farm procedures should be designed to protect human safety and to provide for bull welfare. Everyone who comes into contact with bulls should recognize the various body postures of threat and aggression.
This is the only way a person can stay mentally and physically ahead of the bull. Turning and running invites being chased. Not as likely, but the same can be said for aggressive fresh cows with their newborn calves as they, too, can attack and maul.
There are certain major behavioral activities related to bulls. These are threat displays, challenges, territorial activities, female seeking and directing nudging , and female tending. These activities tend to flow from one to another. Threat displays are a broadside view Photo 1.
This posture is observed when a person or another bull invades its flight zone. PHOTO 1. The threat display of the bull puts him in a physiological state of fight or flight.
The threat display often begins with a broadside view with back arched to show the greatest profile, followed by the head down, sometimes shaking the head rapidly from side to side, protrusion of the eyeballs, and erection of the hair along the back. The direct threat is head-on with head lowered and shoulders hunched and neck curved to the side toward the potential object of the aggression Photo 2. Pawing with the forefeet, sending dirt flying behind or over the back, as well as rubbing or horning the ground are often components of the threat display Photo 3.
If, in response to the threat display, the recipient animal advances with head down in a fight mode, a short fight with butting of horns or heads ensues. The amazing thing about having a four compartment stomach means the cattle can use plants for energy that animals with a simple stomach can not use for energy. This ability is the reason why cattle are versatile and valuable in many areas where transporting feed into the area is not a feasible option for most of the residents.
Cattle are all groupies. They love to be part of the herd and function as such. Partially, it is a safety thing, but it is also a food thing. When one cow or steer finds something tasty the others will want some of it too. Think of kids and candy, any one that sees the candy wants a piece or two. If given enough room cattle also tend to make a loop around the grazing area in search of the best grass and tasty regrowth. They will have a route that they walk to check everything out.
They are all facing the same direction because they are all walking the grazing route. If cattle are used to being fed at a certain time and you are late they will bellow. If they know it is feeding time and you choose to feed other livestock first, cattle of course think they should be first, they will bellow. If they see you roaming about the barnyard and are feeling like you should refresh their hay supply whether they actually need it or not they will bellow.
When a calf has been weaned or separated off of the herd it will bellow. This is why cattle bellow at the sale yard. It is confusing and new, so they are trying to figure out what is going on.
Cattle like routine, not change unless the change is new food then they are all in. When you split the group to keep certain cattle inside the barn and let others out, the ones left inside will bellow.
All cattle are individuals with their own personalities just like cats or dogs. Overall, breeds seem to have common personality characteristics like some breeds tend to be more high strung than others, while other breeds are known for being calm. But not all individual cattle of a certain breed will act exactly the same. Dogs of the same breed all have distinct personalities even when raised by the same people.
This is true for other pets and cattle as well. If a cow has her eyes closed but is still chewing her cud she is not asleep she is just very relaxed. Most cattle will pick a place that is comfortable, so sheltered from any wind if it is cold or where they can catch a bit of a breeze if it is hot. Cattle need to sleep with their feet down hill from their bodies and the head up hill, obviously nothing to worry about here if your land is flat.
Feet down hill makes it so she can easily get up in the morning. What does it matter where her feet are compared to her body, you ask? With her feet uphill or her head downhill she would run the risk of bloating, which is potentially fatal. Without a reliable method of cooling down in hot weather cattle could not live in many of the areas where they are currently the most popular. While I have heard of cattle being able to smell water before, I do not know of anyone with proof that cattle can smell their way to water when they are in an area unfamiliar to them.
Cattle naturally will wander about scoping out an area and love to follow trails that are cut into the dirt. Since most animals that would be tracking up a trail would also need water, it makes sense that a trail will lead to water. A happy cow is relaxed and chewing her cud. These are raised lines, kind of like a stretch mark, that show up when a cow is chuck full of good food, meaning she has everything she needs to eat and that makes her happy. The animal domesticated was an auroch, which is a huge wild bovine 1.
The first cattle, as we know them, were brought here in Cattle are not native to the U. However, cattle can not see much in the way of color and definitely not the colors that we see. They see black, gray, white, and muted blues and greens. What about the red cape waved around by the matador in a bullfight? The bull can not see the color, it is the motion of the flag and the matador that are getting his attention.
Depending upon the breed some cattle are more active than others , but all cattle like exercise and room to move around. There are times in the life of a cow that will be very active like moving to a new pasture, when they get grain or new hay or when they have a calf, but overall low stress is better for them. This is just like people. We all need a balance between activity, stress and being a couch potato. Cattle that have horns got the gene for being horned from both parents.
Just like you got the genes for the color of your eyes or the shape of your nose from your parents. Horns are a recessive trait. Recessive is the opposite of dominant. A recessive trait has to come from both parents to show up in the offspring.
Some genes will blend, so they are not dominant or recessive. The results show up somewhere in the middle like parents with different eye colors, the child will have an eye color somewhere in the middle. Genetically the cow is actually half horned, but when you look at her you do not see horns.
Believe it or not, horns are actually very similar to hair since both horns and hair are made of keratin. We have had feisty polled cattle no horns and docile horned cattle. Any cattle that are dangerous have an aggressive attitude. This can happen with polled no horns or horned cattle. We have had a mix of horned and polled cattle living together and the cow highest up in the social order is rarely the horned one.
Part of this is because our eyes are oriented to the front, while cattle and other typically prey animals have their eyes out on the sides of their heads. Cattle have panoramic vision , meaning she can see nearly all the way around her at once. The only area she can not see is directly behind her. On the other hand, cattle are very poor at depth perception , meaning a shadow on the floor or an actual hole like a pothole look the same to them.
This issue of different depth perception than us is usually only a concern when trying to move cattle through a gate system, since some of the openings that look obvious to our eyes are hard to see for the cow.
Cattle and many other animals, like cats and dogs, have a reflective surface in their eyes that allows them to make the most of even the smallest amount of light at night. Cattle will be more likely to kick when they are nervous, hurt, or had a past experience of rough handling. Are cattle intelligent? This is a tough one, since the word intelligent can mean different things.
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