Nocturnal Bovine Walkabouts

[Anonymous]

About fifteen years ago I awoke early one Saturday morning to see a herd of cows (about a dozen in number) grazing on the children's play area across the road from our house. None of them had been harmed in any way.
The plot is about 20 metres x 50 metres and grassy but no farmers ever put their livestock there as they wouldn't be allowed to.
After much puzzling I went to work and later in the day when I returned they had gone.
I spoke to a neighbour about the incident and he told me that they were from Mercer's farm which is about one and a half miles away with two or three major road junctions in between, hardly just down the road in the next field.
I've herd of a odd beast getting separated from the herd and finding its way into peoples gardens and so forth but to witness a dozen of them located so far from their pasture made me wonder.
Could it be that a gate was opened and when one animal sneaked through the rest followed charging through the night until they came to a suitable spot.
Would cows behave like that? Or could there be another explanation. Any ideas?

 

[Aben_Zin]

Maybe the greys had finished with them and put them back in the wrong field.

Or maybe they just escaped from their traditional pastures and found a large grassy field. The farmer then probably found them. If the farmer left a gate open, all the cows would leave.

Az

 

[_schnor]

Cows are herd animals and so if they do escape, it's rarely just one or two

If one goes, they all look to see what the commotion is and barge their way out too, walk along in a group, find somewhere nice and stay until they're bored. Normally they have problems getting back, but I'd guess someone saw them, rung the farmer and he herded them back.

It could also be possible that they didn't use the road, but used the tracks between fields to navigate. Either way, it was very lucky that no-one drove into them