# Any Farmers ?



## Blizzard (Sep 21, 2009)

This morning I headed across to Cumbria to do a bit of fell walking and as I made my way to the lower fells on foot, I followed the public footpath through a gate and could see at the other side of the field, my next gate.

In between me and the next gate was a herd of cows with their calves (looked to be a few months old and quite big). As I didn't have my dog with me I wasn't worried, except these mothers weren't to keen to move away from the path, which is unusual as they normally back off when I approach. 
As I got to a point about half way across the field, the cows started getting excited and started mooing loudly, then as one moved off the path, she revealed their cunning trap :wink2:..... A big old bull was revealed, directly in my path, staring me out. 

Brain in to overdrive, I'm thinking there have been no warning notices of a bull in the field and it is clearly a well used public footpath, so this big lad must be cool with visitors to his field. I walk a few steps closer then he lowers his head, but maintains eye contact, snorts and stamps a foot. 

Now I'm worried and my bottle goes; and I take a wide detour to the edge of the field, preparing to leap the barbed wire fence if bully boy so much as twitches and run away like a little schoolgirl :crying: As I skirt the field towards the gate, the whole lot of the cows and calves shadow me, mooing loudly, which was a bit unnerving in itself, but my eyes didn't leave the big lad for a second.

Put my mind at rest and tell me they were just having a laugh and that I could have safely walked past bully boy ??

Ken.


----------



## Penquin (Oct 15, 2007)

Not a farmer, I think my response would have been a simple five letter one, starting with the letter "p" and ending with "anic"........ 

It will be interesting to see what "people with useful experience" have to stay who know about these sort of things, I am always wary of cows, add in calves and my confidence would be heading towards my feet, throw in a bull and that's it IMO, I'm outa there by the most direct route at the best sustainable speed.......

Dave :wink2:


----------



## ChrisandJohn (Feb 3, 2008)

This looks like an excellent example of the need to keep cool, and always prepare for 'what if...?' as mentioned on another thread. :serious:


Chris


----------



## Blizzard (Sep 21, 2009)

I'm quite concerned about the way the cows lured me in and deliberately kept the bull out of sight until the last minute Dave ;-) 

It's just as well I don't panic easily, but on a serious note, I wasn't very comfortable with the situation.


----------



## Carl_n_Flo (May 10, 2005)

It's not funny to mess with cows with calves in tow. Most folk assume cows to be benign creatures and, most of the time, they are. But shove in the calves and they can be particularly protective. They are not going to eat you alive, but the beggars do weigh a fair bit and they 'crowd' the intruder to the point that you could be crushed. Bully Boy probably wouldn't have gone for you as he knows that the cows would do the job for him if you got too close to the calves.

However - if there were no calves, and the bull was in there, then he might well have 'seen you off' - to protect his harem.

Grandfather was a farmer.........


----------



## dghr272 (Jun 14, 2012)

Spent all my holidays on a farm during my youth, it was always drummed into me to be wary around cows with calves. Perfectly natural for them to protect their young, with the whole herd getting involved. As far as bulls are concerned, the most docile bull should not be trusted.

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/Taking-care-around-cows

Terry


----------



## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Yep I worked on Farms as well. Cows look all cuddly and placid but can get a bit tasty if they want to.  Its always the ones you least expect. I got laid out by a Giraffe once.


----------



## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

I would assume with no warning signs you would be safe

Cows are inquisitive 

I'd just keep walking 

Sandra


----------



## Blizzard (Sep 21, 2009)

dghr272 said:


> Spent all my holidays on a farm during my youth, it was always drummed into me to be wary around cows with calves. Perfectly natural for them to protect their young, with the whole herd getting involved. As far as bulls are concerned, the most docile bull should not be trusted.
> 
> https://www.thebmc.co.uk/Taking-care-around-cows
> 
> Terry


Interesting in the link, that farmers are not allowed bulls (over 10 months) in a field with public access. I've got no way way of checking the bull's age and like this morning, assume that if it was there, the farmer has deemed it both safe and legal ?


----------



## Carl_n_Flo (May 10, 2005)

barryd said:


> Yep I worked on Farms as well. Cows look all cuddly and placid but can get a bit tasty if they want to.  Its always the ones you least expect. * I got laid out by a Giraffe once*.


I missed the word _'out'_ the first time I read it............and have only just recovered :surprise::surprise:


----------



## Glandwr (Jun 12, 2006)

Never trust a bull, and if in the same field make sure that you have a stout stick or even better a length of alkathene pipe. A really hard bang across the snout will show it who's boss. Never run away from cows they can run faster and have difficulty stopping, not a happy combination. Stand firm and walk slowly away iif nervous

Dick


----------



## jo662 (Jul 27, 2010)

Blizzard said:


> This morning I headed across to Cumbria to do a bit of fell walking and as I made my way to the lower fells on foot, I followed the public footpath through a gate and could see at the other side of the field, my next gate.
> 
> In between me and the next gate was a herd of cows with their calves (looked to be a few months old and quite big). As I didn't have my dog with me I wasn't worried, except these mothers weren't to keen to move away from the path, which is unusual as they normally back off when I approach.
> As I got to a point about half way across the field, the cows started getting excited and started mooing loudly, then as one moved off the path, she revealed their cunning trap :wink2:..... A big old bull was revealed, directly in my path, staring me out.
> ...


There was a section of the one show on Weds that covered this subject,it seems its 
quite common for cows to be bullish!>>

If this link works look at 40mins 25 secs for it!:nerd:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07y9b5c/the-one-show-19102016


----------



## Blizzard (Sep 21, 2009)

jo662 said:


> There was a section of the one show on Weds that covered this subject,it seems its
> quite common for cows to be bullish!>>
> 
> If this link works look at 40mins 25 secs for it!:nerd:
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07y9b5c/the-one-show-19102016


The link worked thanks.

My foot stamping bull certainly wasn't as aggressive as the stamping and raking shown by those in the video preparing to fight, but I'm thinking he wasn't comfortable at my presence and I made the right decision to back off.

Ken.


----------



## tugboat (Sep 14, 2013)

Blizzard said:


> Interesting in the link, that farmers are not allowed bulls (over 10 months) in a field with public access. *I've got no way way of checking the bull's age* and like this morning, assume that if it was there, the farmer has deemed it both safe and legal ?


You cup it's nuts in your hand to check how heavy they are, apparently.

Bazza told me that when he stayed here and we went for a walk in the country.

Mind you, he was in the SAS, but he doesn't like to talk about it.


----------



## Blizzard (Sep 21, 2009)

tugboat said:


> You cup it's nuts in your hand to check how heavy they are, apparently.
> 
> Bazza told me that when he stayed here and we went for a walk in the country.
> 
> Mind you, he was in the SAS, but he doesn't like to talk about it.


Ha ha, superb !

I think I'd like to see a short video of him demonstrating that one for the forum >


----------



## barryd (May 9, 2008)

tugboat said:


> You cup it's nuts in your hand to check how heavy they are, apparently.
> 
> Bazza told me that when he stayed here and we went for a walk in the country.
> 
> Mind you, he was in the SAS, but he doesn't like to talk about it.


Thats right. Have you tried it yet on that Bull in the field behind your house? You know the one I set your CCTV camera up to film. Go and do it this morning and ill stream the footage here so everyone can see how it works. Make sure you give them a good hard squeeze, an old Bull will have really hard nuts as well as heavy ones you see. Off you go!


----------



## cabby (May 14, 2005)

Having worked on a farm myself, I can also say that cows are dangerous at any time, a stout stick is a good idea, but a better one is to change your route if this happens.

cabby


----------



## patp (Apr 30, 2007)

We live in farming country and count farmers among our friends. One such family have a herd of cows. Every now and then a call goes out that the "mad" cow has escaped. It takes about six of them to sort the situation out! It is bad enough when she is barren but when she has a calf or when the calf has just been weaned she is extremely dangerous.


Funnily enough one of our farmer friends will not enter a field of horses. He has never been around them and so does not trust them. Having ridden and owned horses I consider that I can usually judge their character and so assess each situation carefully. Cows I leave well alone.


A lady in the village went walking in Yorkshire and was trampled by a herd of cows (she did have her dog with her and could not disentangle its lead from her hand!). She is severely disabled still  Her husband made it the gate. He is still living it down.


----------



## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

Blizzard said:


> This morning I headed across to Cumbria to do a bit of fell walking and as I made my way to the lower fells on foot, I followed the public footpath through a gate and could see at the other side of the field, my next gate.
> 
> In between me and the next gate was a herd of cows with their calves (looked to be a few months old and quite big). As I didn't have my dog with me I wasn't worried, except these mothers weren't to keen to move away from the path, which is unusual as they normally back off when I approach.
> As I got to a point about half way across the field, the cows started getting excited and started mooing loudly, then as one moved off the path, she revealed their cunning trap :wink2:..... A big old bull was revealed, directly in my path, staring me out.
> ...


The exact same thing happened to me a few years ago - problem was I was half way across the field. Turning back I couldn't keep my eye on him and there was no room off the path to avoid him. I just kept going, talking to him as I passed and prayed he wasn't interested cos I couldn't watch him and walk at the same time. I still break into a sweat when I think about it!



Carl_n_Flo said:


> Most folk assume cows to be benign creatures and, most of the time, they are.


Apparently bull-running in Spain used to be done with cows but they found them to be too unpredictable (there's a surprise!)


----------



## aldra (Jul 2, 2009)

It's hard to know

Apparently A Guy was killed a while ago ,his wife escaped 
They were walkers

I expect the bull was deemed to be safe by the farmer 

Turns out it wasn't 

We used to find that our German Sheperd , Odin, was often surrounded by cows on our walks in the Lake District 

So we were 

But he was a gentle giant and unless provoked kept his cool 

But the sheep on some of the mountain tops were the greatest

Heads in your rucksack, jostling for position to get your food before you did, lambs climbing all over Odin 

Had it been Shadow it would have been a lamb dinner all round 

Bad tempered mutt

Sandra


----------



## Blizzard (Sep 21, 2009)

jiwawa said:


> The exact same thing happened to me a few years ago - problem was I was half way across the field. Turning back I couldn't keep my eye on him and there was no room off the path to avoid him. I just kept going, talking to him as I passed and prayed he wasn't interested cos I couldn't watch him and walk at the same time. I still break into a sweat when I think about it!


Jean,

Respect !! I briefly considered doing just that and quickly bottled it.... And as big headed as it sounds, I haven't bottled much in my life :wink2:

Ken.


----------



## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

I wasn't being brave Ken - I was terrified - but I really had no option!


----------

