I think the problem with a cow walking downstairs is the same reason they don’t cross a cattle guard. Their depth perception is limited and going downstairs would require good depth perception. Plus, it’d be kinda hard to know exactly where to step with their hind legs.
Here’s a couple of cites for cattle and their problem with depth perception. Also, just because someone may train a cow to go up and DOWN a set of steps doesn’t mean they will do so naturally or voluntarily. Many ranches have steps for people to use when crossing the fence. I’ve never seen a cow use them and I’ve seen and worked with a lot of 'em. I don’t know about the duck echo, other than Unca Cece said so…good enough for me.
http://www.cattlepages.com/wwwboard/consumers/messages/8472.asp
“Cows aren’t smart enough to figure out that they would get their feet caught. A cattle gaurd functions because a cow has no depth perception and can’t see the bottom clearly and they aren’t comfortable stepping on the cross bars.”
http://outside.away.com/magazine/0796/9607wild.html
“Why don’t cows cross cattle guards, even cattle guards that are merely painted on the pavement?
Because cows don’t have good depth perception, they can’t readily distinguish between a real guard and a painted one.”
This is true from my experience as well. I went to feed one morning and found a gate down off it’s hinges and laying across the gap, looked kinda like a cattle guard. The cows were standing at it but weren’t trying to cross it. Although when I came across the field and started to honk the horn (that’s how you call 'em in to feed) The one’s in the back actually forced the one’s in front to cross.
Kinda like a buffalo stampeding off a cliff or lemmings to the sea. hmm :scratches head: Isn’t that lemming thing a myth? I always thought it was true but then I’ve also heard different. I’ve never bothered to check.
I decided not to buy the cow… I can buy milk at the convenience store, and it’s already pasteurized, homogenized, and they’ve even added Vitamin D! I usually buy skim. I use it on my cereal, and recently I’ve discovered that a glassful is delicious with a shot of bourbon in it (as a nightcap).
Yeah, I know this. It slips by me sometimes. We actually had a thread about its usage several months ago. Hey, nobody’s perfect.
BTW…You know what irks me? The abuse of ellipsis, run-on sentences and quotation marks.
I grew up on fresh, unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk that we got from the 2 old farmers that lived on the hill. I even petted the cow before. Damn that was Gooooooood milk. Of course it would take some time to get used to while you are gaining antibodies to the unpastuerized milk.