Cows on hills

[ed_hill]

Hi Sarah, with regards to keeping cows fenced in, obviously this would've ideal from a walkers point of view, butisnt always viable, let me give you my home farm as an example.

We run in the region of 100-120breeding females and have 1000 acres of hill farm plus 400 acres of in-by lowland,fenced grassland. This in-by land provides all the nutrition a cow needs in the months from April to October, but come the back end the grass stops growing and the weather becomes more severe so the cows are turned to the hill to provide shelter and rougher sources of nutrition - we also provide them with silage and cereals in aforementioned ring feeders. Thus it is not viable to keep extensively and conciencously rearered cattle in fenced paddocks all year round. I do share your feeling though, and as a hill walker find it frustrating as you to drive a long way for a walk to find it not possible due to cows, grouse or deer, but I guess we have to respect Scotland's environment as a place of living for many as well as a place of leisure.

With regards to younger calves being present outside of the normal months this is down to a number of reasons - but possibly because beef farming is in a relatively good economic place right now so many farmers have turned to calving all year round rather than sticking to set calving patterns, something I cannot personally agree with - I feel it is far more efficient to stick to set 9 week calving patterns.

Rant over! Hope some of this has been helpful!

[JTweedie]

There's been a couple of references to cattle always being fenced in, but remember that the paths we follow to get to and from the hills are also fenced in, so it's possible you could encounter cattle quite easily. For example, the path between Tyndrum and Bridge of Orchy has cattle roaming around including on the path that walkers use (at least as far as the farm before you round the foot of Beinn Dorain.

They're fenced in from the nearby A82, but then so are the walkers, but the cows aren't segregated in fields away from walkers.

[Sarah86]

Hi Sarah, with regards to keeping cows fenced in, obviously this would've ideal from a walkers point of view, butisnt always viable, let me give you my home farm as an example.

We run in the region of 100-120breeding females and have 1000 acres of hill farm plus 400 acres of in-by lowland,fenced grassland. This in-by land provides all the nutrition a cow needs in the months from April to October, but come the back end the grass stops growing and the weather becomes more severe so the cows are turned to the hill to provide shelter and rougher sources of nutrition - we also provide them with silage and cereals in aforementioned ring feeders. Thus it is not viable to keep extensively and conciencously rearered cattle in fenced paddocks all year round. I do share your feeling though, and as a hill walker find it frustrating as you to drive a long way for a walk to find it not possible due to cows, grouse or deer, but I guess we have to respect Scotland's environment as a place of living for many as well as a place of leisure.

With regards to younger calves being present outside of the normal months this is down to a number of reasons - but possibly because beef farming is in a relatively good economic place right now so many farmers have turned to calving all year round rather than sticking to set calving patterns, something I cannot personally agree with - I feel it is far more efficient to stick to set 9 week calving patterns.

Rant over! Hope some of this has been helpful!

Thank you, that has been really informative as the public don't always know what goes on behind the scene and I do appreciate the work that farmers do. I am fairly new to all this and most of the walks we do are cow free so I am not familiar with many of the routes people here have spoken about. I was always put off conic hill after seeing a few shots of a highland cow but have been a few times myself and never seen any.

[ed_hill]

Glad it's been of some help, Sarah. Just feel if both parties knew each others stories, wants and needs, rights and responsibilities fully then a lot of agravation could be avoided.

Sadly the image of each other has been often been tarnished by the few on the extreme. It's too easy for farmers to perceive walkers as rambling idiots with disorient dogs, when the truth is most are very respectful and know how to behave properly and many walkers see farmers as angry types, when the truth is they'd probably happily waste half a day blethering if they could!

[Moobli]

As a dog owner, hill walker, and Farm Manager's wife, as well as granddaughter of a beef farmer, I completely sympathise with you Sarah. Walkers without dogs can generally go past cattle unmolested. However, add a dog into the mix and the story can be very different. I have been put in scary situations a number of times when out with my dogs, and the worst offenders in my case were Highland cattle (with calves) on the Killilan Estate in Wester Ross who came on the attack and only my prior knowledge (letting my dog off the lead) and a well aimed rucksack gave us the chance to escape unharmed. I am not a stranger to being around cattle (we have responsibility for the Highland cattle on the Estate where we live) and these cows really meant business. It is the fact they had calves at foot that made them so protective and dangerous.

My advice would be to avoid cattle if at all possible if you have your dog with you (and a walk without a dog would just seem wrong to me! ) - you may be able to find an alternative route in a different field etc, but if you do find yourself being surrounded by cattle or in a dangerous situation, let your dog off the lead and get out of the area asap - but do not run.

Having said all this, I have done loads of hill walks over the years and not come across cattle that often, so plan your walk well and enjoy your day

[Sarah86]

Thanks for your response Glad I am not the only one who would find a walk without a dog weird Think the best idea is if we ever see cows in the distance, turn around! This is why I was very surprised to see highland cattle on Dumyat, probably one of the most popular local hills for dog walkers and families.

[Caberfeidh]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkk!!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-19909801

[Border Reiver]

Some farmers overreact a lot, but the wellbeing of their animals is their living and some dogs are bred to chase things and farm anmials know it.
I used to take my Golden Retriever around 2 local farms and had mixed reaction there. The nearest farmer used to go mad, saying that my dog chased his sheep. The truth was, that his own dogs were so out of control that his sheep ran all over the place at the sight of any dog, especially his own.
One day I was walking my dog off-lead as usual in a field of sheep at the other farm and the sheep came towards my dog and they sniffed each other and they didn't move. Then the farmer suddenly appeared and I thought I was going to get a telling off, but he just complimented me on having a fine dog. He had been watching the dog/sheep interaction and he explained that retrivers were bred to retrieve game and his sheep instinctively knew that they were safe. Collie dogs are bred to herd sheep and sheep will usually run when they see a collie. Of course there are always exceptions and rogue dogs.
Anyway, the second farmer told me I was always welcome to walk my dog off-lead on his land, except during the lambing season.

[fasgadh]

Not having a dog, I don't worry too much about cattle save Limousin bulls that seem to turn up every where. I have had problems with them in the past at home.

One place you may want to take care and nobody will ever bribe me enough to go there with a dog is Glen Forsa on Mull. There are a few nutters in the fold there when young calves are about. Stand up to them and they back off, but that would take some doing when they are running at you.

When I did have a dog, she was of the type that Welsh drovers used and had a pathological hatred of cattle - to the point of knowing the names of the more aggressive cows and would attack a named cow. She was a good sheepdog though and saved me much running.

[Tinto63]

Is this a Limousin bull? As you can see it is a very big boy and I did keep on the other side of the fence.

[Moobli]

Looks like a Charolais bull to me.

[Tinto63]

Thanks for that, Moobll, I'll have to start getting to know the different cattle breeds!

[Sarah86]

Eeeek those bulls are scary, will definitely be keeping a wind berth. Saw some pigs on the lower slops of Myreton in the ochils today, that is something new for me!

[sross]

Eeeek those bulls are scary, will definitely be keeping a wind berth. Saw some pigs on the lower slops of Myreton in the ochils today, that is something new for me!

Now this topic is just getting more and more interesting.........

There was a news report within the last couple of weeks about a man near Toronto, Canada collapsing in his piggery and being eaten by his pet pigs! He'd raised them from piglets. 'Ware porcine!

We'd never enter a field of beef cattle over here with a bull and getting between a bull and his cows would be incredibly foolish.

I walked through a field of holstein heifers with my mom who was 85 at the time. I'd say that heifers are quite inquisitive and skittish. Imagine they are like the scary movies with teenagers in the haunted house. The one at the back runs into the one in front of her and then then all run amok. We are farm 'girls', so we were chasing the band of heifers off well before they got close to us, but if you didn't know the danger you could end up in a pickle before you knew what was about the happen. I imagine that we must have been quite entertaining-two grown women flapping arms and growling 'co-boss'. The ticks we picked up in that field were far more alarming than the cattle. Also, if you are used to horses don't think you can predict when a cow will kick out. They let fly with no warning unlike most horses that usually telegraph the flying hoof/ves.

When we were on mull we went through fields of highland cattle but we gave them a wide berth and until we knew what their intentions were, we stayed close to the fence line.

Sparky

[BlackPanther]

I always make sure not to cross my path with a herd of cows, especially when there is a bull around!

Once when on holidays on Skye, we headed for Coral Beaches - and there was a large herd grazing on the meadow, just where the path goes... Some of the cows were "sunbathing" on the beach. The path was quite busy that day and it made me laugh, watching all the people trying to manoeuvre around the cows

cows blocking the path

Cows on the beach