The life of an Irish cow is pretty sweet...

jcorr

Panch18 wrote: »

Oh Jim, I despair - for you that is, not for any cow

I despair for you as well, my first name isn't Jim.

Junkyard Tom

Mad_maxx wrote: »

...liberals...

Are you an American who gets his opinions from YouTube idiots like Paul Joseph Watson and Ben Shapiro?

branie2

Lucky them

Bannasidhe

gozunda wrote: »

Of horse - it always amazes me that horses will quite happily get in a trailer and be transported at speed to wherever they are going with hardly a blink of an eye - let them see an empty crisp packet and some will try climb ing the nearest tree

Or a white plastic bag.

Many the time I have had a spot of unexpected 'eventing' due to a white plastic bag - especially those really cheap flimsy ones.

gozunda

jcorr wrote: »

The life of a cow isn't very easy....

A cow might give enough milk in a day to fill two large buckets which is pretty heavy to carry and very stressful for the animal. ....

That's feckin unfair! What cruel bastard has the poor cows carrying heavy buckets ffs!

They should join a union to stop this type of abuse tbh :mad:

Boom_Bap

FrancieBrady

The cow is of the bovine ilk;
one end is moo,
the other milk.
Ogden Nash

btw OP, I worked in a meat factory in my time and they do know (some of them anyhow) that the end is nigh, you could regularly see them trying to put their heads down between their front legs to avoid the bolt.
Saw many a farmer leave in tears too.

ILoveYourVibes

gozunda wrote: »

This is very true - cows are real cute hours when it comes to building and the like. Last year the neighbour went away for the weekend only to find on his return that the cattle had been busy and built a brand new sauna and solarium! He was of course delighted and both him and the cows are looking very well this year ...

Never been around them much. But farmers have told me horses are smarter than cows.

I think horses are much smarter than dogs or cats.

Still love them all though!

ILoveYourVibes

FrancieBrady wrote: »

The cow is of the bovine ilk;
one end is moo,
the other milk.
Ogden Nash

btw OP, I worked in a meat factory in my time and they do know (some of them anyhow) that the end is nigh, you could regularly see them trying to put their heads down between their front legs to avoid the bolt.
Saw many a farmer leave in tears too.

That's sad.

ILoveYourVibes

Bannasidhe wrote: »

Or a white plastic bag.

Many the time I have had a spot of unexpected 'eventing' due to a white plastic bag - especially those really cheap flimsy ones.

Yeah worst is unexpected eventing when you are eventing. Even if the area has been cleared it happens.

I found out horses can see some colours and not others...blue and white they see better they can't see red ..it comes out as green to them.

Very artificial blue sticks out a lot to them apparantly.


Makes this all the more impressive. Very well trained.

That horse has balls of steel!

_Brian

jcorr wrote: »

The life of a cow isn't very easy. They usually are "in calf" for 9 months and then they are milking straight for about six months. There is an overlap between those two periods of course. When a cow is getting close to calving period, they will be dried off with 'holidays' usually for about two months, but they will still be heavy in calf. That cycle will continue for an adult cow for about ten years.

A cow might give enough milk in a day to fill two large buckets which is pretty heavy to carry and very stressful for the animal. They also have to contend with bullies in the herd believe it or not. The bullying behavior usually displays itself closer to milking time when the cows are very stressed.

This is a stupid post.

Herd animals in the wild have to deal with bully animals, that’s how hey exert their dominance, it’s nature, it’s natural.

If cattle were in the wild they would be in calf just as much as on a farm. They would have a calf, the cow usually cycles 30 days later and the closest bull in the wild herd would bull her and she would be back on calf straight away. I could actually argue that they might be in calf more in the wild as farmers intentionally don’t have them in calf straight away again.

Milk weighs the same on a farm as it does in the wild, saying it’s heavy because it’s on a farm is bizarre, different breeds have more or less milk, that’s just a fact, I’ve worked on hundreds of dairy farms and never seen a cow injured through the weight of milk.

Cows will voluntarily come to be milked so nobody has to force them, many farms run robots where the cow wanderers in from the field when she wants, none choose to stay away.

Cows are kept healthy and happy because that’s how they produce the most and best produce. There are far more unhappy household pets in Ireland than unhappy cows.

Panch18

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Never been around them much. But farmers have told me horses are smarter than cows.

I think horses are much smarter than dogs or cats.

Still love them all though!

Cows have a herd mentality with a hierarchy structure so tend to follow the leader

Cows can be incredibly clever but unbelievable stupid in the space of seconds

They are also creatures of habit and the routine is the routine with them, if you are 5 mins late going out to get them for milking they’ll be at the gap waiting for you

Haven’t any experience with horses but they stole me as being much more free spirit, couldn’t say which is more intelligent

_Brian

FrancieBrady wrote: »

The cow is of the bovine ilk;
one end is moo,
the other milk.
Ogden Nash

btw OP, I worked in a meat factory in my time and they do know (some of them anyhow) that the end is nigh, you could regularly see them trying to put their heads down between their front legs to avoid the bolt.
Saw many a farmer leave in tears too.

I see even small cattle here on the farm and when you’d be dosing them hey put their head down between their front legs as an avoidance tactic, but it doesn’t mean they are worried about being slaughtered.

Cattle aren’t stupid, they don’t like being held and dosed or anything about their head, It’s obvious they don’t want to be restricted and herded onto tight spaces as happens on the factory.
But no way are they “aware” that slaughter is imminent, that’s just transferred emotion from humans onto an animal.

FrancieBrady

_Brian wrote: »

I see even small cattle here on the farm and when you’d be dosing them hey put their head down between their front legs as an avoidance tactic, but it doesn’t mean they are worried about being slaughtered.

Cattle aren’t stupid, they don’t like being held and dosed or anything about their head, It’s obvious they don’t want to be restricted and herded onto tight spaces as happens on the factory.
But no way are they “aware” that slaughter is imminent, that’s just transferred emotion from humans onto an animal.

How do you know? I presume death has a smell too, and animals have better senses of smell too.

They could be afraid of a number of things and react the same way.

Panch18

FrancieBrady wrote: »

How do you know? I presume death has a smell too, and animals have better senses of smell too.

They could be afraid of a number of things and react the same way.

A cow putting her head down between her front legs is no indication of anything only that she doesn’t want her head caught

FrancieBrady

Panch18 wrote: »

A cow putting her head down between her front legs is no indication of anything only that she doesn’t want her head caught

Again, without putting human emotions on animals, how do you know they cannot sense death?

Their heads where free and they were just moving along in a line.

_Brian

Death has a smell ??

The inside of a cow has a smell, but other cows haven’t smelled that before so they wouldn’t understand what it was.

It’s really common for people to transpose human emotion and intelligence levels onto domesticated animals, it’s one of the ways people domesticated them, it’s a nice thing and they enjoy people talking at them.

Problems start though when people start believing that animals actually have human level emotion and intelligence.

It’s not that long since I saw a post on boards claiming that cows spent their whole life walking around worrying about being slaughtered for humans food.

Gael23

I suppose it’s sweet to prepare for the miserable premature end. Getting a bolt into the brain and then a knife put to your troath is not so sweet,

Bobblehats

They’ll be getting massages next :P

little did they know all their life they were being primed for the kill. I couldn’t do it...

Panch18

Gael23 wrote: »

I suppose it’s sweet to prepare for the miserable premature end. Getting a bolt into the brain and then a knife put to your troath is not so sweet,

They have a lot better deaths than a lot of humans

Gael23

Panch18 wrote: »

They have a lot better deaths than a lot of humans

Unless they are processed the halal way you could say that.
Are they dead by the time they are bled out?

_Brian

Bobblehats wrote: »

They’ll be getting massages next :P
...

Been a thing for a long time now.

https://youtu.be/h3SG72cKA9o

Panch18

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Again, without putting human emotions on animals, how do you know they cannot sense death?

Their heads where free and they were just moving along in a line.

The put there heads down between their legs on many many occasions, usually when they are confined in a crush or in a huddle in a pen. It doesn’t mean anything

I think it’s impossible to say if any animals can or cannot sense death. Humans have no way of taping into an animals brain

_Brian

Panch18 wrote: »

They have a lot better deaths than a lot of humans

Better lives than allot of humans too.

Panch18

Gael23 wrote: »

Unless they are processed the halal way you could say that.
Are they dead by the time they are bled out?

The same as a human bleeding to death I would imagine

Panch18

_Brian wrote: »

Better lives than allot of humans too.

Exactly!! See my earlier post on transport as one example!!!

kneemos

Here's a wan singing to cows. Putting the head down is normal behavior.

https://youtu.be/3j2kH8ur4FE

FrancieBrady

Panch18 wrote: »

Humans have no way of taping into an animals brain

You have been trenchantly telling us for a number of posts what they are NOT thinking though. :rolleyes:

_Brian

Panch18 wrote: »

The put there heads down between their legs on many many occasions, usually when they are confined in a crush or in a huddle in a pen. It doesn’t mean anything

I think that’s a great example of people confusing an animals instinct with intelligence

Panch18

FrancieBrady wrote: »

You have been trenchantly telling us for a number of posts what they are NOT thinking though. :rolleyes:

Eh no I haven’t

_Brian

I’ve had my dinner so I’m off to check on mine now.
No doubt as ever they will be happy and content enjoying the long days and mild weather, plenty of fresh grass and fresh water.
I have a place I love to sit and watch them in the evenings as they munch away happily, that’s a nice place to relax.

Alf Veedersane

gozunda wrote: »

inHere's an experiment to try - next winter go and lease a couple of fields and a decent cattle shed with some feed. Put the cattle out in the fields and leave them there but also leave the door of the cattle shed open and see how quick the same cattle will head indoors.

The ones that run back in are friesian?

Gael23

What happens to a dairy cow at the end of her calf bearing life?

FrancieBrady

Panch18 wrote: »

Eh no I haven’t

If 'humans have no way of taping into an animals brain' how can you say this then?

A cow putting her head down between her front legs is no indication of anything

Bobblehats

_Brian wrote: »

Been a thing for a long time now.

https://youtu.be/h3SG72cKA9o

Yeah I know. Nicely marbled

kneemos

Gael23 wrote: »

What happens to a dairy cow at the end of her calf bearing life?

Goes to a farm in the country.

Gael23

kneemos wrote: »

Goes to a farm in the country.

Or a farm in the sky?
Or to a bag of dog food?

Panch18

FrancieBrady wrote: »

If 'humans have no way of taping into an animals brain' how can you say this then?

Because smartass there was a poster who said that a cow puts her head down in an Abatoir because she knows she’s going to die. I merely highlighted that cows out there heads down on many many occasions, none of which are remotely linked to death

They put their head between their legs to eat for crying out loud

FrancieBrady

Panch18 wrote: »

Because smartass there was a poster who said that a cow puts her head down in an Abatoir because she knows she’s going to die. I merely highlighted that cows out there heads down on many many occasions, none of which are remotely linked to death

They put their head between their legs to eat for crying out loud

And people put their hands up in front of them many times and for many reasons, none of which are remotely linked to being stabbed.

But they will instinctively do it if about to be stabbed. :rolleyes:

Your point is ridiculous.

gozunda

Gratuitous video of some happy Irish cows and calves in a field somewhere doing what they do naturally. The ladies are hanging out with their mates and even have the attention of a good looking bull. The word for this is bucolic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84IoR2-7350

We get bucolic from the Latin word bucolicus, which is ultimately from the Greek word boukolos, meaning "cow herd." When bucolic was first used in English in the early 17th century, it meant "pastoral" in a narrow sense - that is, it referred to things related to shepherds or herdsmen and in particular to pastoral poetry. Later in the 19th century, it was applied more broadly to things rural or rustic.

I quite like that word - 'bucolicus'

Bobblehats

Look at the hind quarters on that

Panch18

FrancieBrady wrote: »

And people put their hands up in front of them many times and for many reasons, none of which are remotely linked to being stabbed.

But they will instinctively do it if about to be stabbed. :rolleyes:

Your point is ridiculous.

Look, you clearly said in your post that cows put there head down to avoid the bolt, I merely highlighted that they put their head down on many occasions, particularly when in a crush. So you’re point about them putting their head down because they know about death is pure made up crap. Nobody knows what they do or don’t know, that’s the point that you spectacularly miss

FrancieBrady wrote: »

btw OP, I worked in a meat factory in my time and they do know (some of them anyhow) that the end is nigh, you could regularly see them trying to put their heads down between their front legs to avoid the bolt.
Saw many a farmer leave in tears too.

FrancieBrady

Panch18 wrote: »

Look, you clearly said in your post that cows put there head down to avoid the bolt, I merely highlighted that they put their head down on many occasions, particularly when in a crush. So you’re point about them putting their head down because they know about death is pure made up crap. Nobody knows what they do or don’t know, that’s the point that you spectacularly miss

And in my opinion, after moving along in a line you could visibly see their behaviour change as they approached the bolt. I think they simply sensed that what was happening ahead was a threat to them.
It is ridiculous to suggest animals with their heightened senses (necessary for their very survival) would not experience what we call fear.

Gael23

Really the journey of an Irish Beef Cow ends in a sewage treatment plant when it is ultimately excreted by the human that consumed it

_Brian

Gael23 wrote: »

Or a farm in the sky?
Or to a bag of dog food?

Burgers

And a host of other useful products.

https://images.app.goo.gl/19o3a4qgiehxwtyf7

_Brian

FrancieBrady wrote: »

And in my opinion, after moving along in a line you could visibly see their behaviour change as they approached the bolt. I think they simply sensed that what was happening ahead was a threat to them.
It is ridiculous to suggest animals with their heightened senses (necessary for their very survival) would not experience what we call fear.

I’ll agree they sense a threat, that’s natural animal behaviour, same as they sense something as they are being handled to be dosed.

Long as people aren’t imagining they have same thought processes and intelligence as humans.

ChikiChiki

I got a good kick in the stones one day off one. Did not realise they can kick sideways.

FrancieBrady

_Brian wrote: »

I’ll agree they sense a threat, that’s natural animal behaviour, same as they sense something as they are being handled to be dosed.

Long as people aren’t imagining they have same thought processes and intelligence as humans.

I am from a small community with a farmyard next door, I was reared around farm animals, I never put human characteristics on them. But they do feel fear and pain.

_Brian

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I am from a small community with a farmyard next door, I was reared around farm animals, I never put human characteristics on them. But they do feel fear and pain.

Fear and pain are natural instincts, they would never have evolved without them.

nacho libre

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

Did YOU know ...cows eat birds.

Sometimes deer and horses do too.

Like they kill them and eat them.

No i did not. Have you seen this happen?