Cow Curiousity

If you’ve ever been around cows, you will noticed just how curious they can be. They seem to sniff any new “enticement” they see. It can be a bottle of soda or a new trailer – they notice it. They know their land and they seem to know when there’s something new on their horizon. The babies seem to be the most curious. Dogs seem to fascinate the babies – maybe because they are about the same size or it’s just the fact that the dogs are smaller. The calves are brave up to a certain point – if you have a herding dog, these tend to go right up to the cows and then spook them. The calves jump back and if the mama cow is around, she will go right up to the dogs and whirl her head as a warning.

We had some Brangus-Longhorn calves early part of 2021. These young girls and boys were fearless. If they knew you, they would come right up to you to have a sniff. They would lick the gloves, smell the utility vehicle, seek you out in the pasture. They especially liked our neighbor’s dog who would play with them; charging toward them, then backing up. I guess animals understand when there is play involved.

If we are in the pasture shelling peanuts, a few cows will slowly make their way towards us, pretending not to notice us nor make eye contact. Then you look up and voila, there’s a cow sniffing your bag. I’ve read that bovines have exceptional senses of smell – perhaps this is why they can stumble across the random banana peel or seek us out when we are eating peanuts in the field.

We’ve learned that in addition to curiosity they have great memories. If they’ve retrieved a banana peel from a certain location they will go back to that location over and over again, sometimes waiting for hours. They seem to know that we humans had a connection to that banana peel and well the odds are high that there just might be another one if they persist.

So the next time you are around cattle, observe them. I bet they are looking you over and wondering if you have anything worth their interest.

Cubes (aka Treats)