I'm sure you have seen this but made me laugh during my morning routine today.
Cows are curious critters
That was great! Hadn't seen so many of my distant relatives in one place for a long, long time.
Cattle connect noises that occur around feeding time with getting fed. My cattle know the sound of my truck and that that sound normally involves them getting a treat. If I rolled up in someone else's truck they would barely pay attention to my presence. There are several others locally with trucks nearly identical to mine that are ignored as they drive past one of my pastures. It's what they hear, not what they see, that gets their attention.
We had several milk cows when I was a young lad. Dad would beller out a unique sort of sound as he walked from the house to the barn. The cows knew what that meant and would head towards the barn to get milked. Many cattleman incorporate some specific sort of sound to get their cattle's attention. One very large local cattle operation uses a short siren blast as they near a pasture. Every feed truck they own has an identical siren. What is fun to watch is a herd of cattle on the move to the feeding area simply because they hear that siren go off while the worker is feeding a completely different herd a mile or more in the distance. All it takes is for a few to get headed in the right direction and the others will follow because they have learned that life is better when they follow the leaders.
I believe I have mentioned a few times here that I also have about 40 llamas. Llamas are extremely curious about their environment. If the fellow with the trombone would show up in their pasture and start to play, they would be there much faster than the cattle in the video. However, a llama couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, unlike melodiously inclined cows.
Cows are curious critters
that was moooving!
Cows are curious critters
I can vouch for the truck sound recognition ability. My buddy up in the NC mountains had a black angus, Bitty Girl, that got to know my truck very well. Not only for the food thing, she liked going for a ride as well!! Drop the tailgate, back up to the hill and she'd step right in. As an abandoned baby, she was bottle fed, raised by him and his wife right there in the trailer. As a full-grown cow, she didn't know she was a big as she had gotten. She'd just hang out us in the yard like one the dogs if we let her loose. If we were doing some work out on his deck in the back, she'd walk up the steps to see what we were up to. She tried to follow us inside one day but was too big to fit through the door. We about died laughing our As off!
Then there was that day when I was alone with the gun down in a pasture, deep in a holler, being investigated by a lone black angus bull. He wasn't full-grown but plenty big enough to cause me a very long stay in a hospital - or worse. My FS/BS guys were both about 1000' away and they kept hollering at me on the radio about him. Tweren't no problem. I just chatted with him as I went about my business. I tried to get him to come to me but about 10' was as close as he was interested. He got bored and left. I think my buddies about soiled themselves over the matter. Gees, city-boys!
I have seen a video of a feller that brought some orchestral instrument to a pasture to play for a small herd (10 or so). I'm thinking it was some sort of wind instrument but am not sure. He started to play and they all immediately came over to him and just stood there. It was just as amazing as it was hilarious.
Cows are curious critters
Very true. I know my granddad would honk his pickup horn and the cattle would come a runnin. One time while surveying, I made the mistake honking my horn while in a pasture. Within minutes, those suckers had me surrounded. They wouldn't leave and took me even longer to do the survey. They followed me everywhere.
Cows are curious critters
I'm one of those believers in reincarnation. I want to come back as one of your cows. Ok, maybe a bull. 😉
Seems like someone was following the Chive this morning.
😀
I want 4:13 back.
