I have always heard people talk about cow tipping… there was even a URL in the weird earls section about cow tipping a while back.
I don’t believe it. First off, cows don’t sleep standing up. They might rest, but they are still alert. I’ve never seen a cow stand still to a charging ANYTHING, much less a human. Second, pure cow weight… even at a full run I don’t think a human can topple a cow. Third, four legs, even if you managed to knock it off balance I think it could recover easily without falling on its side like a cardboard cutout.
Everyone seems to “know people who went cow tipping” nobody I’ve ever talked to has actually done it themselves.
I’d like to hear from you fellow dopers.
Ever tipped a cow? (and I’m not talking just 15% for good service)
Well, I’ve never tipped a cow, but I do know that it’s fairly easy to get a horse off balance, to where you’d be able to give it a good shove and send it over. When you pick up a quadruped’s hoof, it has to rely even more on the other three, which aren’t really placed so as to support its body properly. It’s rather unstable. Yeah, I could see where if one person could bend a cow’s leg up and get a real good hold on one of the hooves, she’d be off balance and a couple of other people could then push her over.
Domestic cattle, especially dairy cows, are fairly tame, although alert. They get used to being handled and having all sorts of peculiar things done to them. I don’t think the technique of “cow tipping” involves charging at the cow and knocking her over by sheer force. I don’t think it’s physically possible to do that with anything less than a bulldozer. Anyway, even if two or three screaming college students did come charging up to an average Holstein cow, she’d most likely just stand there, staring. I doubt if she’d even flinch. Thousands of generations of selective breeding for docility would tend to make her stay put.
And then there’s the element of surprise. Walk up to her, grab a leg, and dump her over. Yeah, I can see it.
ren, did you really do this? Cause thats what I’m looking for. Actual first hand accounts are important to me on this subject. Were you one of the ones running? Did it stumble around first or just fall?
Come on man, I’m looking for details here. I need proof damnit! MAKE ME BELEIVE! prostrated jesus on a cross pose
We were at a campground, and there happened to be a cow pasture nearby. So, at around 1 am, a group of friends decided to do this “cow tipping”.
We were walking through the pasture and noticed that some cows were lying down, but most were standing up. We chose the cow that was closest to our exit (because once we tipped it, we’d needed to get the hell outta dodge).
The four of us walked up to the cow and stood about 10 feet away from it. At first, none of us wanted to do the actual tipping. So, finally, someone gave in and rushed it.
It didn’t tip.
Instead, it awoke, and just kinda stood there. So the remaining three of us all rushed it, and low and behold, the sucker tipped. Needless to say, we were off like the Dickens.
OK, first hand accounts? Here’s your man. I did this a lot when I grew up.
Basically, you sneak up on a cow, preferably diagonally from behind. Their hearing is far from perfect, and it’s not too difficult to surprise it. I usually was able to tip it by myself, although I’m sure the scare factor was a big part of it. Three people at full running speed sounds like a cow that knew what was coming, though. Again, it WILL see you if you attack it from the side at a 90 degree angle. You need that back diagonal! And for Gods sake, watch those rear legs! Cows kick sideways, unlike horses. And they kick HARD!!
Uhm… not that I recommend or support the practice of Cow Tipping in any way, of course.
BTW, I’ve never heard about a cow cracking ribs over a simple fall… they’re pretty sturdy animals! Was this an old cow?
Myself and two friends did. We didn’t run, but just got beside her and pushed sideways. Over she went. She was extremely distressed, and we all felt kinda bad. There ia a site, but I’m too lazy to find it for you.
Peace,
mangeorge
OK, I confess to tipping cows when I was in college. Went to Michigan State, plenty of farms around. You did not want to try this during the day because the farmers did not take kindly to it and you could get arrested for destroying property as well as endangering animals. Another good reason for doing it at night and being as quiet as possible is that you do not want to be riling up the local bull…and we DID get one after us on one occasion…just ran like hell outta there.
Like I said before, it took three of us college-size kids at full bore to tip an average-size cow. From a running start about 30-40 feet away. After the cow fell over we high-tailed it back over the fence 'cause it would start to moo loudly…
I don’t remember it all too clearly 'cause we were never sober.
I thought it was extremely funny until I found out that cows can break ribs, etc., when they fall over, and that cows had died (so the farmers claimed) from this.
Plus it’s not fun to slip and fall into cow dung with a bull chasing after you.
I dunno. It seems kind of mean to me. I live next door to a farm and I had always wondered about cow-tipping. But what has that cow ever done to you? I guess I just imagined myself in that cow’s shoes (or hooves I suppose); this dumb but peaceful creature just minding my own business and chewing my cud when some crazy people just leap out of nowhere and knock me over! It would be terrifying!
I don’t what kind of damned cows these are. I grew up on a farm, and every cow I ever saw slept lying down. I’ve never seen a cow standing and sleeping. Ever.
A decent-sized cow weighs in at something like 700-1000 lbs. So even if you caught one napping or looking the other way and hit it, you’d better have some ungodly strength to get that cow to move. There’s something called inertia you might want to check into. Go put your car in neutral, then take a good run at the back of it and slam into it. See how much it moves. Hitting a cow at a full run will be approximately equivalent, albeit with half the weight of your car.
I’ve had to try to move stubborn cows. I’m a big guy, but if that cow didn’t want to go anywhere, it just wasn’t moving. And it didn’t have to actively resist me - The stupid thing would just stand there and look at you while you shove it every which way. Once in a while you can get it enough off-balance that it’ll shuffle its feet a little, but that’s it.
I don’t know what to make of these personal accounts, because I’ve never believed in cow tipping. And knowing something of the mechanics involved, I believe that at least one or two of the messages above are either jokes or false memories.
Think about centers of gravity, Sam. A cow’s center of gravity, unlike a car’s, is pretty high, balanced as it is on four fairly spindly legs. Also, a good portion of a cow’s weight overhangs its legs on both sides. It’s not that big a deal to knock that high center of gravity past one set of legs and let the cow fall.
In my case, the cow did kinda shuffle her feet, then tipped right over. They don’t neccessarily sleep standing up, just kinda doze like. I’m tellin’ ya, I did it. Honest engine.
I too grew up around cows. I know enough to tell you that the bulls aren’t all you got to worry about. Piss of a strong young momma cow, and you better head for the fence. Fast as you can.
Did you ever ride cows when you were a kid?
Peace,
mangeorge (City boy by choice.)
mangeorge gains credibility for mentioning that you gotta beat feet outta there in a hurry.
Ever seen a cow run? It’ll show you how slow you are, puny human. They can, and will, chase you down, and I don’t care if you’re Michael Johnson, sans cramps.
To enter into this discussion… I know first hand that cow tipping can be done. Actually, it was a steer… but no matter. When I was a teenager living on a farm, we had a
rather large lake with a nice dock for fishing. We shared the lake with a small herd of cattle, one of whom was a rather spoiled steer named George. George was very curious. (hence his name…) He would
clomp over and stand on the edge of the dock to see what was going on whenever we would fish or swim in the lake. One day, my dad and I had been fishing and George walked out to the edge of the dock. Dad looked at me, I looked at Dad… we both exchanged an evil grin… and we pushed poor George over, off the dock.
It was a deep lake. George was a big steer. It took so long for him to surface we thought we had killed him. While dad stood there calculating just how are we going to get the carcass out of the water. I was just mortified that we drowned poor stupid George. Anyway… George finally surfaced and swam over to the bank, no worse for his experience.
Mom reminded me of this one… To all you folks who think
cows are too heavy to tip!
We had a cow who had just given birth to a pretty little
calf, but wouldn’t let the calf nurse. The calf would try, but get kicked to the ground for it’s efforts. Cows kick
hard, and have suprisingly good aim. My mom called our vet,
good old Dr. Clarkson, who suggested lifting the cow’s hind
legs so she couldn’t kick. So… my mom and sister got the cow into the barn, tied a rope between her udder and her legs, threw the end of the rope over one of the barn’s lower rafters and pulled as hard as they could. Well, the poor cow lost her balance (duh!) and fell (splat!) spread-legged on ground with her bag squished out on both sides. Ouch! Then she got up, gave them both a dirty look, kicked off the rope and ran out of the barn. They ended up bottle feeding the calf…
Also, to answer Mangeorge… we did ride cows. Cindy and Zero (who was born in zero weather and her ears froze off…) but that’s another story…
MAKE ME BELEIVE! prostrated jesus on a cross pose