Author Topic: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...  (Read 7177 times)

tonyk

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #45 on: 13:02:32, 20/10/20 »

 


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« Last Edit: 13:08:21, 20/10/20 by tonyk »

Bigfoot_Mike

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #46 on: 13:04:46, 20/10/20 »
It has been quoted many times but it was best expressed in Yes Prime Minister

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGscoaUWW2M
A classic

BuzyG

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #47 on: 15:13:55, 20/10/20 »
Some have mastered martial arts too!  Remember - avoid the meadow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxXjsQbCZR8


Never heard of it.  I will remember it now though.  ;D ;D ;D O0

BuzyG

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #48 on: 16:00:04, 20/10/20 »
I have yet to meet a cow that has intimidated me in any notable way.  I have been known to to heard them, for some distance, along narrow stone walled country lanes back up on to the moor, in order to then get my car down off the moor.   

I respect there size, speed and space though.  Perhaps I'm lucky being taller than any cow I have yet to meet.  I know it affects how I see other creatures, possibly why I am more nervous of horses closing me down quickly, than when cows or bullocks do the same. And they do close me down sometimes.  But they are not there for a fight any more than I am.  It's either curiosity or bravado.  Though I dare say a mother with calf would keep coming, if I were stupid enough to encroach on their space.

Perhaps one day, something will happen that will adjust my view. Until then I will continue to confidently and happily pass through areas that are occupied by cattle.

My personal code for cattle.

Keep your distance. Do not approach them unless you need them to move out of your way.

Check your clothing.  Some bright colours definitely provoke them, so if I am wearing a red tea shirt I will put something bland over it, even if it means I'm getting hot for a few hundred yards.  If your walking shell is a bright one take it off and get wet or cover it.  Also check nothing is lose and flailing about in the wind and tuck your rucksack fly cover out of sight.

Ignore them. If they walk towards you carry on doing exactly what you were doing. 

Face them. If they run towards you in a heard. Again carry on as above.  If they get uncomfortably close (20m or so) I turn and walk towards them. Then resume my track to let them know I will defend my ground, but have no beef with them. 

Very occasionally I have raised my arms, but not done that for a long time since I realized I did not need too.

Above all remember they are not there for a fight, they are just doing what cattle do. 

(If you have a dog I can't advise as, in my experience, most dogs so obviously provoke other animals. a bit like why I climb hills, just for fun, because they can and that is something that must be hard to train out of them)

« Last Edit: 16:20:09, 20/10/20 by BuzyG »

gunwharfman

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #49 on: 16:09:23, 20/10/20 »
Yes Prime Minister, still makes me laugh!

ninthace

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #50 on: 16:54:20, 20/10/20 »
Interesting comment aboit the red T-shirt BuzyG.  It is said the cows are red/green colour blind.  If true - I should cover up the grey shirt too  ;)
https://silverlakefarms.com/can-cows-see-color/
https://animals.mom.com/cows-poor-eyesight-4622.html
Solvitur Ambulando

BuzyG

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #51 on: 18:07:15, 20/10/20 »
That's an interesting article.  Not too many hard facts in there though and some contradictions re whether they can see particular colours. Suggests they see longer wave lengths better but can't see Red very well.  The contrast point is a good one.

My own observations are that it is the brightness they go for rather that any specific colours. Perhaps I should not have mentioned red earlier, but I have several bright red T shirts and have definitely observed a change in behaviour of cattle, after covering them up in the past. Interestingly my rucksack fly cover is bright Orange and is something I always tuck away near cattle.

WilliamCameron

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #52 on: 23:49:54, 20/10/20 »
I have seen a cow walk over a child, luckily the child survived, but I do not think of them as harmless anymore.

gunwharfman

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #53 on: 16:37:40, 21/10/20 »
My last real run-in with cows, on the Two Moors Way, I managed to secure myself in the 'V' area between a metal gate and a fence. Every time they tried to get to me I just gently prodded the offending cow on the nose with my hiking stick, rubber tip off, and they backed away. In the end I outwaited them, they got bored, a gap appeared and I was off like a rocket!


BuzyG

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #54 on: 16:50:11, 21/10/20 »
My last real run-in with cows, on the Two Moors Way, I managed to secure myself in the 'V' area between a metal gate and a fence. Every time they tried to get to me I just gently prodded the offending cow on the nose with my hiking stick, rubber tip off, and they backed away. In the end I outwaited them, they got bored, a gap appeared and I was off like a rocket!




I hate that sloppy slimy mud.



Some good hair do's there though.  O0

ninthace

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #55 on: 17:08:41, 21/10/20 »

I hate that sloppy slimy mud.
I reckon they do it on purpose.  I have seen the same cow made slutchy mess not only in gateways but also at the foot of stiles and footbridges.  The ridge route back to Simonsbath after walking by the Barle is an endess succession of working models of the Somme battlefield at this time of year.
Solvitur Ambulando

BuzyG

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #56 on: 17:13:32, 21/10/20 »
Thank goodness for the open moors.  I'll take wet peat bog and tussocks over that all day long. O0

shortwalker

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #57 on: 17:21:02, 21/10/20 »
Thank goodness for the open moors.  I'll take wet peat bog and tussocks over that all day long. O0


The problem is for me to get to the open moors, those sort of fields is what I need to go through. Not that I am envious of coarse.
Let your soul and spirit fly Into the mystic.

Van Morrison

fernman

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #58 on: 20:08:25, 21/10/20 »
Thank goodness for the open moors.  I'll take wet peat bog and tussocks over that all day long.

You can't be sure of that in many parts of upland Snowdonia, where you have a great chance of encountering Black Welsh Highland catttle, though as I said w-a-a-y back in this thread (post #13) that I *think* they're docile.

BuzyG

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Re: Factors that may shape our attitudes towards cattle...
« Reply #59 on: 00:11:39, 22/10/20 »
You can't be sure of that in many parts of upland Snowdonia, where you have a great chance of encountering Black Welsh Highland catttle, though as I said w-a-a-y back in this thread (post #13) that I *think* they're docile.


I was simply talking about the mud.  Happy to meet the ladies pictured, as long as I don't have to do their hair.

 

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