cattle grieving

[bivol]

hi!

how much do cattle grieve after losing their calf or teammate and can their grief kill them?

i read somewhere that in case of of death of one teammate the other ox should also be put down.

i red in our daily paper years ago that a guy in germany had a pet bull. he brought him up, and apparently they were close. when the man died, the bull broke the fence and looked for the man. he found the man’s grave and wouldn’t leave.

a story from my family:

my aunt, who has cows told me that when she bought her new milch cow she saw her crying the night after she arrived. she couldn’t believe the look in the cow’s eyes, and tears. that young cow left stall with her mother and her calf, and was now alone. she couldn’t believe that cattle could actually cry with tears.

has anyone had similar experience?

[sanhestar]

I know for a fact that animals can grieve, sometimes for years.

But I’m not so sure about weaping/crying. From my experience they express grief in the way they carry themselves, live the daily life, project their energy to people who will “listen”, avert eyes, refuse to look at people, work mechanically without noticing the handler. Some will loose rank in the herd or stop caring about maintaining the former rank.

Many years back I participated in several seminars about energy work (body/spiritual energy in the way the chinese traditional medicines understands it) with horses and was struck by the silent grief some of the horses carried from being sold too often, been transported over large distances (the horses imported from Iceland often grieve for their home island), loss of herd mates or handlers they had a good relationship with.

[Vicki]

Cattle certainly are social animals, herd animals. And they have good and long memory. I’ve not noticed mine “grieving” after selling calves or herd mates.

As for putting down an ox if its teammate dies, I don’t think this is necessary. (Granted, I have limited experience.) Bonds certainly develop between cattle, and between cattle and humans, and perhaps the first bonds are the deepest. But cattle can learn to work with others and do so with success. The Howell Farm team is a case in point: one ox died and a suitable new mate was found and they are working well.

Cattle that are bounced around to many new homes and drivers probably can become more challenging than oxen in long term stable environments.

[sanhestar]

Vicky,

the grieving animal is often the animal that was sold AWAY. For animals that remain in the herd it’s a natural process, that sometimes herd members go missing – killed by predators, chased away (young colts by the lead stallion, young goat bucks) or decided to wander of by themselves.

[Vicki]

Sanhester: yes, I see. Most cattle I’ve bought in were young and were assimilated into the herd, or I got two that already knew each other. But I can imagine how one sold away could grieve and if not accepted into the new environment, might pine away and decline.

[sanhestar]

I also remembered a case of grief in our goat herd, involving a well integrated (highest ranking doe, in fact) doe.

Some years back we slaughtered 4 young bucks, born to two does.

The high ranking doe lost 3 out of 4 kids, the other doe 1 out of 3. This must have affected the high ranking one quite severely because she lost rank in the months that followed – fell down to being no. 2 and remained at this position for many months until the now no. 1 doe got sick (foundered). Also, she refused to interact with us for months, became hard to catch, wouldn’t come to be petted – and that from an well socialized and friendly animal.

[OldKat]

@bivol 6237 wrote:

hi!

how much do cattle grieve after losing their calf or teammate and can their grief kill them?

i read somewhere that in case of of death of one teammate the other ox should also be put down.

i red in our daily paper years ago that a guy in germany had a pet bull. he brought him up, and apparently they were close. when the man died, the bull broke the fence and looked for the man. he found the man’s grave and wouldn’t leave.

a story from my family:

my aunt, who has cows told me that when she bought her new milch cow she saw her crying the night after she arrived. she couldn’t believe the look in the cow’s eyes, and tears. that young cow left stall with her mother and her calf, and was now alone. she couldn’t believe that cattle could actually cry with tears.

has anyone had similar experience?

I can believe it, but I wouldn’t have before the experience that follows.

I have a large steer, technically an ox as he is over 30 months of age, named Stormy. He is out of a Holstein cow and by a black Limousine bull. This big guy is about 6 foot tall and easily weighs over a ton. He was raised with one of our Red Angus cow’s # K 851 (also known as June) who happened to be the last show heifer that my daughter raised. (They are 2 of only 4 bovines that we own that actually have a name, so you know they are kind of special to us) When they were both about 4 & 1/2 years old I decided to move some cattle to a different piece of property, with all of the females going to a place in an adjoining county. Since my herd bull does his best to kill Stormy every time he sees him I decided to leave him as a baby sitter for some younger steers and bulls.

When I loaded out the trailer and June got on it he stood and bellowed and bellowed by the corral. When I drove off, Stormy ran for probably 1/2 mile down the fence line and I wasn’t so sure that he wasn’t going to try to jump the fence at the end of the property and follow us. When I came back for a second load he was still standing in the corner of the fence line.

When he saw the truck and trailer turn the corner he ran along the fence all the way back to the corral as I drove down to it. When I got there I went over to look at him & I promise you he was crying! I could not believe what I was seeing, but there is no doubt in my mind that he was indeed weeping. He was so upset that I actually went to that property for several days in a row just to check on him.

Due to the drought I have had to reduce my herd size (again) and I decided at the end of the year to let go of the lease where Stormy was staying, so I moved him and the remaining steers and bulls to the place where the cows are. I put up a 3 wire electric fence to keep the herds apart. When Stormy and June saw each other it was like a family reunion. You never saw two happier animals! Anytime the two herds are near each other June and Stormy will be seen standing across the fence from each other, happy as can be. So yes, I do think cattle can grieve (and celebrate).

[Rod]

Some time ago we bought a small herd of Dexter cows which included a cow family with a young bull calf, his mother, the mother’s mother (grandmother) and her mother (great grandmother). One day we moved the herd from a pasture down our driveway to new grass near our barn. The cows all ran to the new site but in the process the little calf got left behind at the old pasture. Shortly after the cows group began grazing the new grass the calf discovered he was left alone and started to bellow. Hearing him the whole family of this calf including the mother, grandmother and great grandmother took off at a run back to where the calf was, rounded him up and then ran back to the new pasture where the other unrelated cows were grazing. The amazing thing was that only the family members and all of them at that went back for the calf while the other unrelated cows paid no attention.

A few years later I sold the calves mother to someone and it broke my heart to see that grandmother cow bellow and run the fence lines as her daughter was loaded and driven off the farm. Later I sold the grandmother also who was still a fairly young cow. I was researching some pedigrees sometime later I noticed the notation deceased for the grandmother cow. I wondered if she died of a broken heart.

This is a great thread and really makes one think about the obligations we have when we undertake to establish relationships with our animals.

[Robert MoonShadow]

Another thing that’s interesting is that we, as anyone who breeds any type of animal, really want that type of female; that bonds & nurtures her young – and often cull those that aren’t ‘good mothers’. Yet it still surprises us that the bond can be so strongly expressed. We know the “love” can be strong, just we don’t seem to expect them to express it in such “human” terms.

[Thea123]

We moved into a ranch nine months ago that abuts a 1200 acre ranch that has about 70 herefords free ranging on it. I know nothing about cattle and our ranch has no cattle or livestock. Two days ago a cow died near our lower meadow. Today the herd crossed over the river, went to the place the cow had died and congregated in a tight bunch there for about an hour tossing dirt on themselves and smelling the ground where the cow had lain dying. Then the herd went and surrounded the dead cow (I watched this with binoculars). They seemed to smell it, nudge it, lick it, especially around the face, almost like they wanted it to get up. They stayed clustered around it in a tight group for about two hours. What on earth were they doing? The cow is being fed on by coyotes packs and vultures. I tired to search for cattle reactions to death in the herd, on google but came up, amazingly, with nothing! That is a first for google. Either the cows were all curious or having a cow funeral? Any ideas.

One thing I have learned in the past nine months is that cows seem smarter than I thought. One last question, the man who owns these cows only feeds them tortillas. (I am not joking.) This is okay now when the fields are full of green grass, but in the summer it bothers me, because the fields are dry as bone. I’ve heard in the past that the cattle, would break through our fence in the summer to eat our grapefruits, although they have not done this since we moved in. Is it okay for cattle to eat only dry, dead, brown, grasses all summer in California? Do they need hay?

One last question. Sorry. What happens to a cow when her calf dies and she is full of milk? There seems to be one such in the herd.

Oh dear! I hope I have not become the cow social worker!

Thanks for setting me straight please!

Thea

[bivol]

hi Thea123, welcome!

interesting insight in behaviour of cattle when facing their dead kin. i knew cattle could grieve but i didn’t know they mourn the dead! and i’m pretty sure they mourned the dead! i knew elephants mourn their dead not only after immediate death, but also years later. i wonder if the cows will remember after a year.

“Is it okay for cattle to eat only dry, dead, brown, grasses all summer in California? Do they need hay?”
well, i guess they could survive, depending on the quantity of the grass, but i don’t think they can fatten on it. historically, some cattle breeds were held in similar conditions without deteriorating condition. it depends a lot on local conditions, keep some hay just in case.

“What happens to a cow when her calf dies and she is full of milk?”
that depends on the breed. beef breeds, i think, should not develop serious problems when a calf dies, because they have milk production similar to wild cattle, which means they produce only enough milk to nurse a calf. i red in a magazine that primitive cattle, notably my country’s busha cattle, do not get udder inflamation when not milked. their milk production is similar to beef cattle.
in diary cows, not milking is a no-no.

[OldKat]

@Thea123 7125 wrote:

We moved into a ranch nine months ago that abuts a 1200 acre ranch that has about 70 herefords free ranging on it. I know nothing about cattle and our ranch has no cattle or livestock. Two days ago a cow died near our lower meadow. Today the herd crossed over the river, went to the place the cow had died and congregated in a tight bunch there for about an hour tossing dirt on themselves and smelling the ground where the cow had lain dying. Then the herd went and surrounded the dead cow (I watched this with binoculars). They seemed to smell it, nudge it, lick it, especially around the face, almost like they wanted it to get up. They stayed clustered around it in a tight group for about two hours. What on earth were they doing? The cow is being fed on by coyotes packs and vultures. I tired to search for cattle reactions to death in the herd, on google but came up, amazingly, with nothing! That is a first for google. Either the cows were all curious or having a cow funeral? Any ideas.

One thing I have learned in the past nine months is that cows seem smarter than I thought. One last question, the man who owns these cows only feeds them tortillas. (I am not joking.) This is okay now when the fields are full of green grass, but in the summer it bothers me, because the fields are dry as bone. I’ve heard in the past that the cattle, would break through our fence in the summer to eat our grapefruits, although they have not done this since we moved in. Is it okay for cattle to eat only dry, dead, brown, grasses all summer in California? Do they need hay?

One last question. Sorry. What happens to a cow when her calf dies and she is full of milk? There seems to be one such in the herd.

Oh dear! I hope I have not become the cow social worker!

Thanks for setting me straight please!

Thea

Thea,

I’ve seen cows do similar things when one of their herdmates dies. I have no idea why they are doing it, but unless the cow died from some contagious disease it probably doesn’t hurt that they are doing so. I’ve seen on a TV documentary that wild elephants will do essentially the same thing, even to the point that the remains are only skeletal some year or more after the death. How do they know that the bones in question belonged to a “friend”? I don’t know… but they sure do.

I’ve heard of people feeding bread from the day old bread store. Tortillas, wow that is a new one. Cows can handle all sorts of protein and carbohydrate products and byproducts because of their ruminate digestive tract. Question is, what kind of condition are they in when it is dry and he is feeding tortillas? If they calve the next year the answer is obviously “good enough”. They may look thin to you, but if they are cycling and settling (getting pregnant) then they are probably okay.

One of the first things to go is reproduction when a cow is not getting enough to eat. They may produce milk for the calf they have and their body condition score will reflect it. However, the next year they often don’t calve. You would be surprised how fat and slick a cow like that can get on only dry, dead looking grass if she has no calf pulling her down. I guess it is natures way of balancing out resources.

If a cow has a calf die her milk will eventually dry up. Sometimes you can graft an orphan calf onto such a cow, or a calf that you buy from a dairy farm … BUT the cow has say in this deal and the answer is often NO!!!!

[Rod]

How about ducks. We have a small pond that gets inhabited by a pair or sometimes two pairs of wild Mallards each spring. They arrive when the ice is about 1/3 off the pond and stay to raise a clutch of ducklings after which they fly away, usually in late July or August and we don’t see them until the following spring. this has been the same pattern for 20 years.

Except for last year. A friend gave us a pair of Rowen ducks, male and female for the pond. These ducks were quite tame and did not fly like the Mallards did. Both kinds of ducks got along separately but well and when the female Rowen duck went to set on her eggs something got it. The mallards took the remaining Rowen duck into their swimming group and unlike previous years flying off in late summer instead stayed around until the pond started to ice up. They left at that point and shortly thereafter before I could catch the remaining Rowen and bring him in the barn for the winter something got him also.

Well a couple of days ago the wild Mallards flew in as usual but instead of hanging out on the edge of the ice and swimming around which is the normal pattern they started a search walking around on the snowy banks and hills adjacent to the pond presumably looking for the Rowen duck that they left last fall. Not finding him they left and have not been back. How bout that.

[Happy When Hitched]

I witnessed a chicken funeral some years ago. We had added half a dozen hens to the existing flock of old girls. I think there were 5 left of the “Old Guard”. About a year later, the head hen died. We buried her beside the garden. As the last tamping down of the grave was taking place, the flock, which had been watching with interest, quietly came over. As we stepped back, they stepped up to the grave. The rooster crowed. One by one, the hens of the Old Guard walked to the grave, scratched once, and walked on to stand at the other side of it. Each time, the rooster crowed. It seemed that was the signal for the next hen to go. The newbie hens stood in a semi-circle, and after the original girls did their homage, they walked around the grave to join the Old ones, but did not stop and scratch. Rooster crowed again, and they departed for the pasture.

I have no experience with cows, but a couple of interesting ones with pre-death communication as well as grief in horses.
The most notable was an old broodmare, 3 days post foaling. She coliced. I called vet, and administered IM banamine while I awaited his arrival. Walked her. The banamine eased her up for just a few minutes, then she went bad again. The second shot did nothing, and I knew she was in serious trouble, and so did she. As we walked slowly around, she started hollering. Her best buddy answered from out in the pasture. Their talking got faster and more furious, and Foxy galloped to the gate, in a panic. We stopped there, and Daisy and Fox touched noses, chuffing and gently nickering to each other. Then, having said what I thought was goodbyes, Foxy turned and galloped off. Daisy was euthanized not long after the vet arrived, having a belly full of blood.
I did not witness any sign of grief in Foxy, and wonder if that conversation played a role. Nor do I remember any signs in the foal. I think becoming an orphan at so early an age does not seem an abnormal thing to baby, having so little experience with life and death.

The death of the old stallion was also interesting from the communication point of view. Bear got down, could not get up. He was in his stall, with Foxy in an adjoining stall. We propped him up on his sternum with a hay bale, waited for the vet. As he was injected, he started a communication with Foxy. He was worried, and she seemed to be comforting him. After he was removed to the pasture where he would be buried, Foxy and Mona, the two mares with whom he had run at liberty for years, became highly agitated and stood fretting at the gate to an adjoining pasture. I fed them some Star of Bethlehem tincture, and they settled a bit, but only became calm after I turned them into the pasture with him. They thundered over, sniffed his body thoroughly, and then went to grazing calmly, only occasionally looking over at him.

Has anybody else experienced such pre-death communication in any of their animals?

This is a very interesting thread! My thanks to everybody for their stories.

[Patrick]

I’m very concerned at the ramifications for livestock owners, when we begin to practice excessive anthropomorphism. Very few of us want our animals to suffer, even psychologically, but what is the result if we start to give our animals such emotions as grief? Sure, any female animal will react negatively when it’s offspring are in danger or are removed, as will other animals toward established herd mates. Are they reacting toward the individual, or just toward the fact that a well established herd member is now gone? Is it really “grief”, or simply just an instinctual reaction designed to increase the chances of survival of the species? In a pair or team, when one dies or is removed, is the remaining animal missing the individual, or just the companionship that most herd animals crave as part of their natural survival behaviors? These questions are not easily answered here, but all livestock owners should keep in mind that those who pass laws which govern us, including the majority, the non-animal owning public, are largely ignorant about animal care. The only reference they have is their pet dog or cat. What is the result if we ourselves start reinforcing this idea of grief amongst animals which are seperated? Will we eventually be required to slaughter or sell entire herds as a unit, rather than subject individual members to psychological or emotional “abuse” by their removal?
I’m told that every winter, the NH Dept of Ag receives more and more complaints of horse and other livestock “abuse” or neglect, simply because the animals are seen by a member of the public being outdoors in the cold or snow. It doesn’t matter that they have perfectly adequate shelter available to them if they choose. All the complainer has for a frame of reference for animal care is his puppy or kitty curled up on the couch indoors, yet the innocent livestock owner must endure an invasion of his privacy and property, and an inspection because of the complainer’s ignorance. Those of you who show your animals at fairs know how many stupid, to us, questions we receive from the public. It seems to me that the questions are getting worse and worse each year because of the increased disconnect from farm and natural world. We all know that animal rights groups are largely based on ignorance of the actual needs and behaviors of animals, but they receive funding from somewhere, from the people who donate who also have incorrect, anthropomorphic opinions about the needs of animals. People, who in the long term will control our activities, if we don’t do a better job of educating them.

[Author]

Posts