Did you know that your cows are out? (Or sheep, or horses, or...)

[JethroB]

Speaking from experience, hitting a steer weighing 800+ pounds is not fun. Bent everything on the right side of a six month old 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass except the front door. Rounded a corner on a back road on a dark moonless night and the car jumped sideways. Didn't know what I had hit until I got out of the car. Angus steer and I never saw it until after the wreck.

High school friend of mine hit a large horse doing about 80 in a hotrod 1957 Chevy. The top was smashed down level with the hood and trunk on the passenger side over to a couple feet from the driver's door where his head was. He was unhurt. Engine was knocked loose. Wife (girlfriend at the time) and I walked a couple hundred feet down the road from where the car came to a stop and found one of the horse's large leg bones completely stripped of meat laying in the middle of the road. The next day his brother, who came to the wreck scene, realized that one of his horses was missing. It was around five miles from the home farm when hit.

If I see cattle or horses or anything else out I ALWAYS stop and tell or call if I know who they belong to. Could save a life or lives.

Dad and I spent two summers fencing the entire farm and we never had cattle get out. Don't know if it is true but back then I was told that if you hit a cow or pig and your vehicle was damaged it was the farmer's fault for letting it get out. If you hit a dog and your vehicle was damaged it was tough luck. At least in Kentucky.

RSKY

My BIL’s mom got a new car (or two?) over the years because one of their cows got out and was hit by a car. The car was totaled so the driver got his mom’s old car as a peaceful settlement and mom got a new one.

 

[LHF2019]

My cousins cows got out all the time. Used to work 3rd shift and go in after dark and was not uncommon to drive by and see cows out. Got to the point just quit telling him. Has multiple barns and can see one from my place. Doing chores look cows out again. Just keep working. This is when he was milking almost 500 head. He eventually put up perimeter fence and that helped some. Been awhile since any have roamed so maybe he has it under control now.

 

[GeneV]

I'm in an exurb area, mostly here if anything it's people with chickens (or ducks in my case), and occasional horses. But I do have one neighbor who had a lot of stuff going on like goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, peacocks, and finally got a cow. They always had something escaping, and one time it was the cow. That old girl escaped and headed for another one of my neighbor's place.

There's a lot of funny stuff that happened with that, so it's hard for me to choose just one, but I will say that me and the neighbor walked her home where their worker was waiting for us. So an hour later, she (the owner) calls me, "oh Gene thank you, yes I had my worker tie her to the deck, so she's not going anywhere." I just started telling her, are you sure that will hold, she's a pretty big cow...didn't even get the full sentence out when she had to put me on hold for another incoming call.

She comes back on, "Gene, she ripped the deck post out!"

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Found a herd of cows in the middle of our hunting camp property about 15 years ago.

I was walking around the trails and heard some rustling in the thick stuff. Thought some deer were coming out but to my surprise a cow popped out. Turns out there were ten of them. Had no idea where they came from.

Started to back track their prints and ran in to two men on horses wanting to know if I have seen any cows. I gave them a short cut to find them. Said they traveled five miles.

Thought you were going to say one of the cows was a 4 point!

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Good fences make good neighbors

35 years ago we got a new neighbor that bought 40 acres that was fenced to run sheep, 32" high fence. The fence was in disrepair, some stretches were only 24 " high from being broken down.

My dad's property bordered this 40 acres on the east, in laws property bordered it on the south and east, and my property at the time bordered it on the north.

There was constant intermitant grazing of the new neighbors cattle on our properties for more than 25 years, until we built "the good neighbor fence". New neighbor then tied down the top two barb wire strands at several locations because he knew his steers were jumpers.
Sheriff said the best solution would be to have our dogs run the cattle into the city limits where he would be fined for not keeping his cattle in. What? Well that ened up being the solution as another neighbor did this with his dogs.
Now he is a good neighbor.
He actually had to thin out his herd to sustain it.

 

[lman]

A few years ago, I came home from work and found the neighbor's milk cow going through my garden. Fortunately it wasn't hard to put in my horse pasture temporarily. I was able to put a lead rope on it's collar and lead it back home so they could milk it.

 

[IndyIan]

One of our pot-bellied pig has decided twice now in 8 years to go for a tour, and the first time she made the newspaper as one of the local police forces oddest calls of the year... The pig got about a half mile away before getting tired and laying on someone's front yard. The folks there didn't know what to do, so they called the police, and they showed up and didn't know how to move a pig either... Fortunately our great neighbor Peggy happened to go by and saw our pig and the police on the front lawn, and helped the cops put the pig in a large dog crate the neighbor had, and then Peggy scooped the crate up with her tractor and dropped the pig off in our barn.
We were at work at the time, and Peggy gave us a call when she had the pig in the crate...
The next time the pig got out and basically went straight to Peggy's house, it was resting in the middle of the road that time, and the UPS guy stopped in at Peggy's and asked if it was her pig. We were home for that one and made the pig walk all the way back home which took some "encouragement", and it hasn't escaped since...

 

[flyerdan]

When I was growing up in the 60's in northern Idaho, we had some neighbor cows get out and follow the logging roads to my mom's garden on occasion.
Nowdays if I see some neighbors dogs out and about, I'll take them home, or harbour them here until their people get back, if they're not home.

 

[dodge man]

I wrote I used to have a neighbor whose cows got out often. One time they were munching the grass just a few feet from our house. For some reason when I went outside it spooked them. Apparently cows are fast and have great endurance because they took off and I could see them still running for about a half mile. I went and told him where they were headed. He wanted to know why I thought they were his? My brother in law farms and has cattle, I should have told him to come load them up.

 

[ponytug]

I wrote I used to have a neighbor whose cows got out often. One time they were munching the grass just a few feet from our house. For some reason when I went outside it spooked them. Apparently cows are fast and have great endurance because they took off and I could see them still running for about a half mile. I went and told him where they were headed. He wanted to know why I thought they were his? My brother in law farms and has cattle, I should have told him to come load them up.

"...He wanted to know why I thought they were his..." Oh my! That is so funny. I'd have signed off with "Gosh, sorry, my mistake, I guess that there is no need for you to do anything..." Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

I got a call from animal control awhile back, saying that some "black and white" cows had been seen on the road two miles or so from our place, and they thought that they might be ours. (We have Belted Galloways, aka "Oreo" cattle.) Of course, I wasn't home, so I hustled back home. Sure enough about two miles away, there they were; three black angus, and a pair of Charlais cattle. (Not mine!) They were on the road I front of their owners ranch. (The Animal Control officers and I had a good laugh over that one; we are friends with a number of the officers.) The few times that one of ours have gotten out they usually only move a few feet, as the home herd instinct seems pretty strong for our cattle.

All the best,

Peter