Really? Or urban legend?
I know I’ve seen this thread before.
Yes, you can tip a cow - I’ve seen it done.
No, it’s not very nice, and bad for the cow.
What do you tip a cow? 15 percent? 20?
Typically 15%, but I only give 2% for that lame-o milk some produce.
We have done this practically as a great debate. Countless people claim to have seen it first hand or know somebody trustworthy that was a witness.
OTOH, as of the last thread about this, there wasn’t one video of true stunt cow tipping on the Internet. Does that prove anything? No, but I bet I could come up with a video of a midget nun riding a goat on the Internet if I put a little effort into it. That seems fishy.
I have been around cows my whole life and we have a family cattle farm now. I am going there this weekend so maybe a can give it a try myself. Real farmers and other people knowledgeable about cows don’t talk seriously about cow tipping in my experience because they know it can’t be done like people say. It is difficult to approach a cow. They don’t just stand there. The whole herd will move. If you try to muscle a cow into doing anything like I have done many times, it is extremely difficult even for a calf and usually impossible barehanded for one person with bigger ones. They weigh a whole lot and they are pretty surefooted. Watch bullriding sometime and see what body control they have. It is basically the same thing as saying that you can just walk up to a large horse and push it over. They don’t just stand still and rigid so that five frat boys can line up and apply enough force in the right places.
I think this is one of those collective memory illusions. I don’t doubt that many people have been tricked into going cow tipping like people get tricked into going on a snipe hunt. Maybe some people in the group go out at night and claim they succeeded to the people standing at the fence and those people are convinced they witnessed it.
Yeah, it’s always the city slickers who claimed to have tipped over a cow, never anyone who works with them (cows.)
I’ve been face to face with cattle, and I think it’d be easier to tip a house than a cow.
A: They’re big.
B: They’re HEAVY
C: If they’re not in a mood to be pushed on, they’ll move away.
D: If they’re really not in a mood to be pushed, they’ll push back. HARD.
E: Did I mention they’re freaking big and heavy?
Stupid question-are you trying to push them over on their side, or as some have claimed, ass over teakettle?
The urban legend says that cows sleep standing up. Interesting. Mine all sleep laying down. I have about 50 of my neighbor’s cows in my front pasture at the moment, and they were all laying down when I got up this morning. Let’s assume, though, that a cow was dozing standing up, with her knees locked like a horse. You sneak up very quietly. You’re now next to a 1,000 pound animal with all four legs braced and locked. You lean against the cow and push. Somebody’s going down, but I don’t think it’s the cow.
Shagnasty may have pegged it. Cow tipping would have to be done when it’s dark, right? So you sneak up to the fence and tell the city boys to wait there and shine the flashlight at you when you yell. You sneak up to a cow that’s laying down far enough away that the city boys can’t see you in the dark. You stand next to the cow and yell. They shine the flashlight at you and you’re standing next to a supine cow, struggling to its feet. presto You’ve just demonstrated cow tipping.
Whenever someone asks me if the UL is real, I tell them that it only works on bulls. I’ve got a bull out in the pasture, and I think he’s sleeping right now. Would you like to give it a try? 
Can you be specific as to place and time. One person, a group? Night or day?
Nothing personal, but I really don’t believe you.
Given the widespread infamy of the supposed move, the sure-fire hilarity which would undoubtedly ensue, the ability to otherwise find literally anything on the internet from an army of jackass teens with mom’s Night-Shot Handycam, and the fact that, in my hours of searching the internet for video or photographic proof I find that none exists, I really, really have to doubt anyone that says they have seen or directly participated in cow-tipping.
Cite?
Just a though while reading about cowtipping while near a cat. I noticed when I push the side of the cat, the cat pushes back, then harder I push the harder she pushes. The cat seems to stand straight up.
But…
If I suddenly stop pushing, she almost fell over torwards me, perhaps that could be a way to tip a cow, but 20% seems safer.
Behold, The argument from authority:
I grew up in the country, in rural central Ohio, in southern Logan County along the banks of the Mad River. My grandparents had a dairy farm in northeast Iowa along the Minnesota line in beautiful Winnishiek County. For almost forty years and more I have lived and worked in Fayette County, Iowa, and count dairy farmers and veterinarians and milk testers and their irresponsible offspring as my friends and clients. My children and their friends were wild country kids. I went to college at the University of Iowa with a bunch of rural football players and wrestlers. You would think that if cow tipping was legitimate I would have heard about it, seen it or done it, now wouldn’t you?
In the face of this, I tell you with my hand on my heart that I had never heard of cow tipping until I saw it in some newspaper humor piece well after I had reached voting age – I think a Dave Berry column.
Beside that I am persuaded that anybody that creeps up on a dozing Holstein weighing about 1000 pounds and idly chewing its cud in the dark corner of some pasture is probably going to get a big surprise that has little to do with a cow falling over in confusion.
I have more confidence in Bigfoot than in cow tipping.
I grew up in rural Northern Indiana. Our version of cowtipping involved getting the unsuspecting boob in a field with a bull :eek:
We were luckier than hell that no one ever got trampled or gored…
Starting small, hmmm? Next step’s a dog, then you can keep working your way up.
Yet another farm boy checking in. Never saw it done, never heard of anyone doing it, and besides, our cattle slept lying down.
I vote urban legend.
OK, cow tipping may be bogus, but my father has told me stories of cow raising, apparently something he did when a delinquent child. Cows sleep lying down. Apparently, upon standing up after lying down for a while they will immediately fart, and quite a bit. So, he and his compatriots would startly a sleeping cow while one of them waited behind it with a lit match.
Take it or leave it as I never saw it happen myself.