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Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 8:20 am
by Sylvia
Mentioned in another topic this is something which I think would be invaluable. Could everyone chip in with details of particular body language they know means something so a good list can be made to help us novices who are struggling get to grips with the many and varied nuances of our herds.
Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2004 10:23 am
by Kathleen
Hi Sylvia,
How is the sun shine in your part of the world?
Blimey now that you ask ...Cattle body language is sometimes not a glaringingly obvious thing... I mean there are some things which are realy obvious like the shaking of the head or snorting or kicking and then the charging... but then there is the differences which come from how much human interaction they have experienced and the degree to which they display.
For example my old bull always snorts ... rolls his ruff ...and paws the ground when you take anyone up to his fencline to look at him however he has never charged ... I feed him by walking into the paddock with him ... he talks all the time when I am walking to his cement feed trough with his feed bucket ... he walks placidly behind me ... and it only takes a vioce rebuke to make him stand up and wait until I have placed his food in his trough ... that does not mean I would ever -trust- him ... if when I was in the paddock he snorted and carried on then we would have to have a serious conversation!
Females have the lovely habit of doing the same thing ... snorting and rolling up the neck and pawing the ground but then you can have small head movements which tell you 'get away' ... like when they shake the head (this is what happened in the ring with the chap and the cow with the HUGH horns ... she did not want to walk and shook her head ...she objected to the whole process... the fellow ignored this and tried to make her lead ... she did it again etc and then when she did not get her own way she swung her head and tried to poke him with her horns but only managed to catch him with them because he must have had some experince of her doing this and had jumped back and let out his grip on her lead ... thus giving her more rope to play with -so to speak- which then meant that he had less control of her than he originaly had ... which resulted in a bloody fiasco in the middle of the ring)
Another exmple is a small snort ... I had a lady and her son come to look at Dexters ... they had been told that Dexters were like puppy dogs ... I told them that they were cattle and had all the usual cattle idiosyncracies... the son (20 years plus) was trying to pet one of my females who is not 'freindly' (he had his hand outstreatched and she had sniffed it and he thought this was an invitation to try to touch her nose)... I told him not to try it ... I was talking with the mother and out of the corner of my eye saw her shake her head ... just as I was about to turn and say something sharp to him I herd her snort and saw her flick her head and charged his outstreatched hand... he squeaked like he had been hit (which he had not been it had just been a little warning) and I walked in between them and kept myself between her and him.
I have also found the eye to be a good indication of seriousness in cattle... they realy do roll them! When cattle fight (I mean FIGHT) they roll them and get in some real serious snorting and growling. I have seen bulls do it ... but the first time I have ever seen cows do it was since I've owned dexters... two of my females (both boss cows in their own rights ... one short one long and both out of the same dam) got into a serious altercation one day ... they had been running together prior to calving ... I had been milking the longleg ... and when I turned the shortleg out for the first time after she had calved ... they started! ...the short rolled her neck and snorted ... the long took exception to this and came at her ... the short rolled her eye and snorted some more ... the long ignored this and then they made impact! The sound of their heads hitting together made my eyes water... it was like something from a nature program where you see mountain billy goats going at each other ... anyway I tried to split them up but they were having none of it ... as soon as I would move they would have at it again so I left them to it ... they were still at it 20 minutes later ... and they were still rolling their necks and snorting at each other the next day! But the piont here is that I have never had a bull or cow roll its eye at me but I have heard it said about bulls that have attacked people.
The realy subtle indications are just that -subtle- I mean it is sort of knowing the animals and knowing their moods and this is realy something that comes from interaction with them... like knowing when they are off colour (sick)... but I think that all people should never take any cattle for granted... for example when I was in the UK I had a couple of instances with peoples bulls ... I was not sure of them so I erred on the side of caution ... they showed me -what I found to be- an uncomfortable amount of attention ... I am not saying they were 'after me' but they were curious and I did not want to take the chance that once they had 'investigated' they might find some exception to me... I have never ever had this reaction from bulls (dexter or otherwise) here at home *shrug* so I have to assume that they were curious because of my vioce -accent- ... anyway it was an interesting experience for me *smile* and I think ammusing for my UK friends.
I hope this in some way explains what you wanted to know Sylvia
All the best
Kathleen.
Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 8:28 am
by Sylvia
Thanks Kathleen just the sort of useful stuff I hoped might turn up.
As for weather here in Wales, in the last few days, wet and very windy but overall, brilliantly unexpected for wet Wales, we have had 2 good spells to get small bale hay and big bale haylage made. Lovely!
Another snippet of news - we had our first 'grandchild' yesterday i.e. first babe from a cow we had bred. On the first really wet day for ages but mum and babe doing very nicely.
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2004 9:11 am
by Kathleen
Hi Sylvia,
congrats on your new edition!
and your weather sounds like mine at the moment!
... I am looking foward to some more well deserved winter sunshine.
All the best
Kathleen