I said to myself that I wouldn’t post on this topic.................... Suppose it acts as a reminder for us all to take care around cattle particularly as many have young at this time of year ....
I suppose those of us, who posted on this forum for a long time see topics come and go and come back and back. But there are new members joining all the time so if I repeat myself will those, who have been around abit, not yawn.
If walkers took the time to learn a bit about cattle, then they might help the cause by added fact rather than innuendo to the cause, there has been a suspicion, within agricultural circles that the Limousin breed throws up aggressive females. A farmer in mid-Wales, near Lambister, told me that it was worse in cross breds, now if this is true I have no way to corroborate it. But it was first brought to my attention at a major county agricultural show, when I was Cheif Steward organising the Horse and Cattle parades, in the bar after the cattle stewards were pulling my leg and subject of Limousin cows came up. Many agreed on this aggressive streak, but they would only admit to it if they were thinking that they were talking in private and off the record.
I read somewhere that a suspected aggressive streak had been bred out of the Limousin. An admission? Certainly somewhere else the industry had gone to the trouble to publish a vets finding that there is no basis in fact that there is no provable breed aggression in beef animals.
Anyone with knowledge of animal husbandry will know of recessive genes, the Lambister farmer told myself and Mrs BWW of the incident, when this aggressive cow single him out and cornered him in a remote barn and had he not known of an escape route (from childhood days playing there) the cow would have killed him.
I have taken the trouble to look at Limousin photos, not a breed that was covered in my student days, but I try to keep up to date recognizing the many continental breeds that have proliferated over the last 20 -30 years, just keep safe. I have been fortunate both as a farmer and as a walker. Mrs BWW and I like to handle animals if they are inquisitive and come to hand, the nearest to injury I have come to has been when giving aid to a distressed or trapped animal.
But if I were to report an aggressive animal I would hope that I could give both information on sex and breed.