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Racing Cows

I was a teenager in the late '70's and my father gave me a farm job in the Summer holidays as a means of earning some cash (or maybe just to get me out of bed). I'd gather the cows up at the Dairy after the morning milking and herd them down a long track to a field that had good pasture but no water trough. As brownmane said, there was always a lead cow but every day I noticed the same old stubborn matriarch (No. 69 'Daisy') at the back as the last cow. At lunch-time I would move the cows to another field on the opposite side of the track that had a water supply. That was the end of my duties as the cows would be picked from there for the evening milking and returned for the night.

The mind-numbingly boring part of the job was keeping an eye on the cows for the four hours they were in the first field. This was because the field was bounded on three sides by a barb wire fence separating the cows from a far bigger crop-field of young Barley. Give cows a field of good pasture and at any opportunity they will try to poke their head over, under or through the fence to eat the barley. But after the first few weeks of me patrolling the fence, the cows got the message and didn't try it so often. I had no radio, Walkmans hadn't been invented, there were too many large tempting targets for the air rifle, just me and my thoughts. Grief .. bovine-watching was dull.
By week four I was snapped out of my reverie by a strong mental flash in vivid colour of a close-up section of the fence, together with a strong conviction that this place would prove a pleasurable place to be. I recognised the section as being about 80 yards away - looking up I saw there were no cows near that part of the field, looking down I was surprised to find myself already running. As I halved the distance I noticed one cow mid-field motionless but staring at the spot I was heading for. A couple of seconds later two more cows with their backs to me suddenly lifted their heads and stared at the same spot. I swear blind all three cows didn't hear or see me as they started a run for the fence. We all arrived at the same spot at the same time and if you can imagine surprise on a cow's face, then what I got was bug-eyed astonishment.
Shepherding, particularly by children, is an ancient profession. Not surprising that deprived of modern distractions you were in tune with the cows. Did you also meet Pan?
 
Just as a weird little aside to all this cow talk, last year there was an interesting program I can't remember the name of, but I think it was early evening, BBC 2, and it followed a handful of independent farms in Scotland.

One of the guys they followed had a huge herd of cows with horns, and he had at one time been seriously gored by one cow, but this didn't seem to have dented his love for them. Anyway, this guy was having trouble with "Cow 22" who was even more protective of her calf than the other mothers and something of a rebel. I really felt for Cow 22 because she just wouldn't submit to the system but she had no idea how futile her rebellion was.

So I'm writing a dystopian in which the state controls mothers and children.... aaaand so if you ever see a book for sale called Mother 22, that's me!
 
So I'm writing a dystopian in which the state controls mothers and children.... aaaand so if you ever see a book for sale called Mother 22, that's me!

As an adult I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the concept of Dairy farming. I am grateful that a gene mutation in a European ancestor 10,000 years ago allows me to be lactose-tolerant, but it's just the idea of ensuring a lactating mother is made pregnant again to keep the milk flowing. Very good luck with the book.
 
Shepherding, particularly by children, is an ancient profession. Not surprising that deprived of modern distractions you were in tune with the cows. Did you also meet Pan?

My very first post was about 'buzzing' in the Pan(ic) thread. I do not wish to meet Pan thank you.
 
As an adult I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the concept of Dairy farming. I am grateful that a gene mutation in a European ancestor 10,000 years ago allows me to be lactose-tolerant, but it's just the idea of ensuring a lactating mother is made pregnant again to keep the milk flowing. Very good luck with the book.
Agreed, I was at one point entranced with keeping two goats (for company) for milk until I discovered the requirement. Too cruel, and what can you do with the goatlings. Unless you want a herd you will offer them up for stew
 
As an adult I have become increasingly uncomfortable with the concept of Dairy farming. I am grateful that a gene mutation in a European ancestor 10,000 years ago allows me to be lactose-tolerant, but it's just the idea of ensuring a lactating mother is made pregnant again to keep the milk flowing. Very good luck with the book.
This is exactly why I use the dairy industry as an analogy in the book, because it is the use of mothers and their babies to produce a consumer product on a mass scale, which is not an easy thing for anyone with a heart to think about.

Thanks for the well wishes with the book :)
 
Many years ago I decided to walk along a public footpath which went through a large field with several cows, they were for the most part at the far end of the field and I could pass without going particularly near them. As I got about halfway towards them one lone cow that was nearest, raised its head. watched me and then started trotting towards me with purpose. I stopped and so did it. I started again, more nervously, and it did the same thing. It was clearly a warning and not curiosity, so I headed back, I was already slightly wary of being in a field with such large animals anyway. That said I've walked though fields of cows and they've all completely ignored me, not in moderate interest several times before and since. I don't recall if there were any calves but there may have been.

On another occasion a few years later I was walking, again on a footpath, this time next to, rather than in, a farmer's field. There was some sort of embankment on one side so I couldn't see into the field, as it came to an end and the field came into view, around a dozen, small, black cows with large horns (no idea of the breed but very distinctive looking) ran up to the part of their enclosure nearest me and all stared in unison. It was very unnerving. I have no idea if I startled them or if they thought it was milking time, though I've seen cows walk sedately yo be milked, these ran but they were all very interested in me. I was walking alone and not making any noise.
 
Many years ago I decided to walk along a public footpath which went through a large field with several cows, they were for the most part at the far end of the field and I could pass without going particularly near them. As I got about halfway towards them one lone cow that was nearest, raised its head. watched me and then started trotting towards me with purpose. I stopped and so did it. I started again, more nervously, and it did the same thing. It was clearly a warning and not curiosity, so I headed back, I was already slightly wary of being in a field with such large animals anyway. That said I've walked though fields of cows and they've all completely ignored me, not in moderate interest several times before and since. I don't recall if there were any calves but there may have been.

On another occasion a few years later I was walking, again on a footpath, this time next to, rather than in, a farmer's field. There was some sort of embankment on one side so I couldn't see into the field, as it came to an end and the field came into view, around a dozen, small, black cows with large horns (no idea of the breed but very distinctive looking) ran up to the part of their enclosure nearest me and all stared in unison. It was very unnerving. I have no idea if I startled them or if they thought it was milking time, though I've seen cows walk sedately yo be milked, these ran but they were all very interested in me. I was walking alone and not making any noise.
From the comments here it sounds as though they're very bored and will come over to check out anything.
 
I was going to put this in the Farming thread months ago, but I detected a hint of ambivalence towards Farmers. People seem less judgemental about livestock so I'm putting it here - it is about cows but it's not Fortean, it is not new science (40 years old) but it was my first Scientific epiphany. It doesn't warrant a new thread unless a Mod with filing OCD wants to move it.

Cows : Evolved to eat grass* but not evolved to digest it. For Goodness Sake.
*(see also coat toggles, dahlias, yew berries, ragwort, psilocybin, plastic-coated tractor wires)

Mid 1960's Primary School : Cows eat grass, cows cannot digest grass. They have special bacteria in their tummy that release a chemical to break down the grass into sugars. Things were more altruistic in the 60's

Mid 1970's Big School: Cows eat grass, cows cannot digest grass. The bacteria still didn't get names but the enzyme they release is called cellulase. This breaks down the cellulose plant cell walls and the released sugars, together with some of the bacteria, passes into the first chamber of the cow's stomach. This didn't seem fair on the bacteria, things were more cynical in the 70's

Mid 1980' Polytechnic, Mature student majoring in Microbiology & Ecology: Cows eat grass, cows cannot digest grass. I was doing a little late-night background reading in Energetics which is the study of energy flow (calories) through an ecosystem. Typically you measure the amount of sunlight falling on a patch of growing grass and determine the conversion rate of solar energy into plant protein. The grass gets eaten (eg by a cow) and the plant protein becomes herbivore protein with energy lost through respiration, evaporation, excretion (cow pats have their own ecosystem) and so on. Herbivore protein ends up as carnivore and scavenger protein in the great Circle of Life.
There was a young Researcher (outstanding in his Field) about 5 years earlier who made two observations, both of which were already well known but he put them together. One concerned the nature of bacteria utilising a food source: bacteria are not altruistic, they do not share or ration food - they eat and eat and eat, multiply, multiply, multiply (or divide, divide, divide) until the food supply is exhausted and the population crashes through starvation. Were it otherwise, Adam and Eve would have been up to their non-existent navals in bacteria after Day One in the Garden. So the amount of "free" sugar released in a cow's stomach is very small.
His second observation was that, relative to the amount of free sugar available, a cow is very large (even when far away). That was the epiphany, the light-bulb moment when I went from bacteria enabling a cow to feed off grass to a cow eating grass to feed the bacteria. These are grown up in the multi-chambered stomach acting as a bio-fermenter and they are what the cow digests and thrives on.
 
Does that mean that we eat bacteria, too?
 
. Did you also meet Pan?

I wish I'd met Pan's People but I was too young, (by god did I find them fascinating though!)

pans_people3.jpg
 
When I was a university Senior doing field work, I spent several weeks in a mountain range in Nevada. There were quite a few cattle in the area, mostly cows. After spending most of the day looking at rocks, we would be picked up by a van and taken back to camp. We would occasionally encounter a cow standing in the middle of the road. The cow would always wait for a while and then, when it was obvious that we were not going to go around it, it would turn around and run directly away from us. Now, the cows would never leave the road, I guess because it was easier to run on the road. Eventually, the road would curve and the cow would continue going straight!
 
Meanwhile the field originally noted is now empty of cows and is freshly mown and there is a bunch of cows standing all together very closely in the next field looking grumpy. I will report if they start running around.
 
Every time I see the thread title, I think of cows with numbers painted on them, or cows with jockeys atop.

Mud races with teams of 2 cows is a 'thing' in Southeastern Asia ...

Mud-Cow-Race-A.jpg


Jockey-style racing of individual cows is a 'thing' in Germany ...

the-most-german-things-that-ever-happened-1-13454-1371828885-14_big.jpg


Then again, you may be thinking of the more sedate and fashionably snooty British approach ...

889-side_car_cow.jpg


:evillaugh:
 
Completely tangential posts concerning bears, encounters with them, and surviving such encounters have been moved to a separate thread.
 
I was going to put this in the Farming thread months ago, but I detected a hint of ambivalence towards Farmers. People seem less judgemental about livestock so I'm putting it here - it is about cows but it's not Fortean, it is not new science (40 years old) but it was my first Scientific epiphany. It doesn't warrant a new thread unless a Mod with filing OCD wants to move it.

Cows : Evolved to eat grass* but not evolved to digest it. For Goodness Sake.
*(see also coat toggles, dahlias, yew berries, ragwort, psilocybin, plastic-coated tractor wires)
At first I was confused by this list, but then remembered something that people not knowing bovines, probably didn't know. Interesting to me is that farmers "feed" their cattle magnets (one only). The magnet (at least the ones I played with as a kid) is about 3-4 inches long, smooth cylindrical. It is injected (not exactly sure if injected or inserted is the right word) through a tube that is inserted into the cow's mouth to its stomach. The magnet stays there to attract any wire that the cow may eat. It protects the cow from a punctured stomach that would happen if the wire remained free floating in it.

Cattle don't intentionally eat wire, but you never know what they might come across when grazing.
 
I was going to put this in the Farming thread months ago, but I detected a hint of ambivalence towards Farmers. People seem less judgemental about livestock so I'm putting it here - it is about cows but it's not Fortean, it is not new science (40 years old) but it was my first Scientific epiphany. It doesn't warrant a new thread unless a Mod with filing OCD wants to move it.

Cows : Evolved to eat grass* but not evolved to digest it. For Goodness Sake.
*(see also coat toggles, dahlias, yew berries, ragwort, psilocybin, plastic-coated tractor wires)

Mid 1960's Primary School : Cows eat grass, cows cannot digest grass. They have special bacteria in their tummy that release a chemical to break down the grass into sugars. Things were more altruistic in the 60's

Mid 1970's Big School: Cows eat grass, cows cannot digest grass. The bacteria still didn't get names but the enzyme they release is called cellulase. This breaks down the cellulose plant cell walls and the released sugars, together with some of the bacteria, passes into the first chamber of the cow's stomach. This didn't seem fair on the bacteria, things were more cynical in the 70's

Mid 1980' Polytechnic, Mature student majoring in Microbiology & Ecology: Cows eat grass, cows cannot digest grass. I was doing a little late-night background reading in Energetics which is the study of energy flow (calories) through an ecosystem. Typically you measure the amount of sunlight falling on a patch of growing grass and determine the conversion rate of solar energy into plant protein. The grass gets eaten (eg by a cow) and the plant protein becomes herbivore protein with energy lost through respiration, evaporation, excretion (cow pats have their own ecosystem) and so on. Herbivore protein ends up as carnivore and scavenger protein in the great Circle of Life.
There was a young Researcher (outstanding in his Field) about 5 years earlier who made two observations, both of which were already well known but he put them together. One concerned the nature of bacteria utilising a food source: bacteria are not altruistic, they do not share or ration food - they eat and eat and eat, multiply, multiply, multiply (or divide, divide, divide) until the food supply is exhausted and the population crashes through starvation. Were it otherwise, Adam and Eve would have been up to their non-existent navals in bacteria after Day One in the Garden. So the amount of "free" sugar released in a cow's stomach is very small.
His second observation was that, relative to the amount of free sugar available, a cow is very large (even when far away). That was the epiphany, the light-bulb moment when I went from bacteria enabling a cow to feed off grass to a cow eating grass to feed the bacteria. These are grown up in the multi-chambered stomach acting as a bio-fermenter and they are what the cow digests and thrives on.

great post.
 
No Sarah Brightman in that line up, must have been a long time before it was her “Time to Say Goodbye!”
She was mostly in Hot Gossip, but apparently joined Pan's People right at the end. Although I can't find her name mentioned in the line-up lists on the Pan's People Wikipedia page.
 
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