# How dangerous are cows? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 19, 2018, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136 "2018-02-19T18:48:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/61 "2018-02-21T04:36:20Z")
We stopped on a gravel road on the edge of almost nowhere to get out and stretch. There were range cattle browsing 100’ away. One of them (original gender not established – could have been a steer) got up on the road and started walking toward us. We became a tad anxious, but kept an eye on it. Then it began to vocalize. No. That is when you GTFOT. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/62 "2018-02-21T05:32:40Z")
If they had calves, then they were probably trying to scare you away. If there were no calves, then they probably wanted you to milk them. First thing in the morning cows are pretty uncomfortable, and the sight of a human can cause the milk to let down, Pavlov-style. Cows on dedicated dairy farms are generally milked 2-3 times per day. Cows with access to robotic milking machinery generally walk in to get milked 5-6 times per day. So the ones who chased you were likely the best producers, and therefore the most uncomfortable. As for the question of danger, I recall reading somewhere that 20 times more humans are killed each year by cows than by sharks. Mind you, a good few of those are probably newbie wranglers who jump into a squeeze pen when they shouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Kiber](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiber/32/317_2.png) [@Kiber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiber)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/63 "2018-02-21T15:02:52Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > Moo moo… > > Moo moo… > > Moo moo, moo moo, moo moo, moo moo, moo moo, moo moo MOOO! Thank you, you’re [beautiful](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2A6YPowfwk) ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/64 "2018-02-21T15:19:58Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Ignorance fought. I think I like cows too, but I haven’t got to know very many. > > If you think having salt licked off your hands is gross but amusing… in the Sierra Nevada, you might be disconcerted to find marmots watching you pee, and then scurry up to eat the vegetation that you peed on. Salt is precious up there. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/65 "2018-02-21T15:37:28Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > But Pigs? > Pigs are dangerous. > > Don’t break your leg in a pigpen. > Really. Remember that scene in _The Wizard of Oz_ where before she departs Kansas, Dorothy snags her foot and falls into the pig pen to much excitement? Yeah. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/66 "2018-02-22T04:56:56Z")
If you’re ever in a cow pasture, don’t start singing the Black Eyed Peas. > **[Tourist singing Fergie tune viciously attacked by cow](https://www.sfgate.com/weird/article/Tourist-singing-Fergie-tune-viciously-attacked-by-12630775.php)** > > Even a gentle cow can have a fierce temper, a 25-year-old backpacking tourist found out... ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/67 "2018-02-25T20:22:48Z")
Hilariously appropriate GIF: ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/68 "2018-02-25T21:33:06Z")
> [@Kiber](#): > > Thank you, you’re [beautiful](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2A6YPowfwk) Translated from Chinese, of course, judging by the size of the pen. [Cite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement#Area). ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/69 "2018-02-25T22:14:41Z")
My uncle bought calves from a local dairy. We bottle feed them and eventually the adults were sold at auction or processed for our freezer. Males were cut long before they got aggressive. Steers are better food animals. My uncle kept a few heifers and had them bred. It was nice having calves we didn’t have to bottle feed. I never felt any fear around them. Other than stepping in manure. I wouldn’t go into a pasture with a grown bull. Our neighbor had one. My uncle brought heifers over there to breed. We didn’t go in that enclosure. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2018, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/70 "2018-03-13T20:50:29Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Many park lands grant grazing rights to ranchers. You get used to occasionally passing by beef cattle. Funny comment I heard once, while walking by them - “Do you suppose they realize they’re, like, ten times our size?”. National Forests, not Parks. There’s a difference. National Parks are for preservation, but National Forests are for use. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/71 "2018-03-14T00:59:14Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > National Forests, not Parks. There’s a difference. National Parks are for preservation, but National Forests are for use. I didn’t say “national”. There are county and state parks, too, as well as regional park districts, run in different manners by different authorities. I’ve been in plenty of things called “parks” or even “preserves” that had grazing within their boundaries. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2018, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/72 "2018-03-14T01:51:07Z")
Having grown up in rural Idaho… cows are more curious than you’d think, and generally quite docile. They’ll investigate anything new or interesting in their vicinity, just like the cattle that came to watch the woman doing yoga (?) in the gif posted above. They often expect feed from humans, too, so they’ll follow someone around if they think there might be some food in it for them. We walked through pastures full of cattle quite often in my youth, and neither I nor anyone I knew thought it a dangerous thing to do. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2018, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/73 "2018-03-18T00:31:41Z")
Anything 5 to 10 times your weight is not to be trusted. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/74 "2018-04-20T02:40:51Z")
Are Holsteins meaner than other breeds? I was reading on-line and I wasn’t sure if he was just letting off steam about _his_ malcontents. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/75 "2018-04-20T10:17:17Z")
**Moderator Action** This is now the topic of a column: > **[How dangerous are cows?](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/9730/how-dangerous-are-cows/)** Moving thread from GQ to Comments on Cecil’s Columns/Staff Reports. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/76 "2018-04-20T13:00:07Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Are Holsteins meaner than other breeds? I was reading on-line and I wasn’t sure if he was just letting off steam about _his_ malcontents. Holsteins are milk cows and quite gentle due to routine contact with humans. It’s beef cattle that spend almost all their time on the open range that might get tetchy once in a while. I had many relatives that were dairy farmers. Injuries happened from time to time. E.g., my grandmother got kicked by a cow at milking time and ended up with a nasty bump on her leg. They kept shackles which they would use to milk cows (holstein) known to be kickers. But you still had to get them on. This was quite uncommon. Another grandparent once had a cow (jersey) with a different type of nasty streak. When you bring the cows in towards the milk barn it would hang back and keep looking behind at you. If you were close behind she’d let it rip. She was pointed out to me and you had to keep moving aways to the side to avoid her aim. There were all sorts of non-everyday situations where you could get hurt. E.g., helping my grandfather load an old bull onto a trailer to take to the packing plant. This guy had decent sized horns and wasn’t happy about it. I remember the first time I was helping a neighbor load cattle onto a truck and they had cattle prods. Made it a lot easier but the result was madder cows. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/77 "2018-04-20T13:20:54Z")
**Crafter Man** and Moses: They both get answered by the celestial heavens…OK! ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/78 "2018-04-20T13:41:03Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > As for the question of danger, I recall reading somewhere that 20 times more humans are killed each year by cows than by sharks. Mind you, a good few of those are probably newbie wranglers who jump into a squeeze pen when they shouldn’t. I’m pretty sure that’s because people have way more than 20 times as many encounters with cows. Not a lot of shark farming going on, and they get hella aggressive when you try to milk them. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/79 "2018-04-20T14:00:59Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Holsteins are milk cows and quite gentle due to routine contact with humans. It’s beef cattle that spend almost all their time on the open range that might get tetchy once in a while. The Jersey breed of dairy cattle are a exception to the rule. At agricultural shows, Jersey bulls are required to be lead by two handlers, which to the casual observer looks ridiculous because they are usually the smallest animals on show. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2018, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136/80 "2018-04-20T14:04:05Z")
Well, just like people, it’s the little dudes you gotta watch out for. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-dangerous-are-cows/809136.md?page=5)