Beware of farm animals....

Even a castrated ram can be an aggressive beastie.

My sister, at one time, had a couple of goats (a nanny and a billy) and a couple of sheep (a ewe and the aforementioned ram). They were basically self propelled grass cutters but both males were aggressive, certainly towards each other, They would frequently line up on the flatest part of their field and, in utter silence, charge. There would be a tremendous "CLONK" and they would wander off in different directions, honour having been satisfied for the moment.

This one's looking a bit too interested for my peace of mind!

Sheep behind wire fence Olympus OM1 1993 03-33.jpg
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Even a castrated ram can be an aggressive beastie.

My sister, at one time, had a couple of goats (a nanny and a billy) and a couple of sheep (a ewe and the aforementioned ram). They were basically self propelled grass cutters but both males were aggressive, certainly towards each other, They would frequently line up on the flatest part of their field and, in utter silence, charge. There would be a tremendous "CLONK" and they would wander off in different directions, honour having been satisfied for the moment.

This one's looking a bit too interested for my peace of mind!

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He's disappointed with the brand of camera you are into!
 
When Mum was a little girl, she had a pet wether for a while, until he got aggressive. Then the family had several roast dinners!
 
Years ago, and only as a last resort, we would use tups to persuade dogs not to chase sheep. . . Just put the dog into a flock of sheep with a couple of tups there, so that they could see for themselves what would happen if they started worrying them - the tups were very persuasive:)
 
I have a friend with a sheep farm. Having helped out shearing them you quickly lean a few lessons (I said shearing not sharing ;)) The first lession I learned is to grab a sheep from the front, grabbing the back end means being dragged across the field face down.
Sheep have a fair set of teeth, getting bitten is no fun.
Lastly and relevant sheep like rams headbutt, they are also heavy enough to knock a grown man down. While for the most part they'll avoid people, some are..... lets be generous and say mental! :)
 
swanseamale47 said:
I have a friend with a sheep farm. Having helped out shearing them you quickly lean a few lessons (I said shearing not sharing ;)) The first lession I learned is to grab a sheep from the front, grabbing the back end means being dragged across the field face down.
Sheep have a fair set of teeth, getting bitten is no fun.
Lastly and relevant sheep like rams headbutt, they are also heavy enough to knock a grown man down. While for the most part they'll avoid people, some are..... lets be generous and say mental! :)
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A Border wallie's role is to act as a pack of wolves, trying to be in 6 places at once, to dominate and control the sheep. It looks very one-sided but isn't and if a ewe has strong feelings on the subject she will butt the dog and send it flying through the air:)

Right now, most of our lambs are a couple of weeks old, they were kept indoors for 6 days, then turned out with their mothers, and at this stage their mothers have very strong protective feelings and we know from experience that we need to leave them strictly alone . . .

Any female animal will be aggressive when it needs to be and will protect its young, and any male animal will protect his harem, so the survival trick is to show them all respect.
 
I go fishing and tend to be ok with sheep.

This week I had a sheep standing still looking at me. Kept putting its ears forward and then backwards. Thought it was going to charge at one point. Thankfully it walked past while I was fishing.

I never like cows and you wouldn't catch me in a field with a bull. Horses are ok but I don't like it when they trot behind you but I've learned that they're ok. They're as bad as cows.
 
Cows are usually fine unless they have a calf at foot, in which case they will of course protect it. Most of the walkers who are attacked by cattle have a dog with them, and often off the lead, so it shouldn't be a surprise when a cow decides to do something about that.

I only personally know about one bull attack, but it was caused entirely by the vet who had gone to examine him and who thought it was OK to tresspass into his living quarters. The vet survived (but only just) and the stockman who came to his rescue was very badly injured too.

Horses are nearly always fine provided that they have somewhere to escape to, they are prey animals that only fight when they have nowhere to run to.
 
Garry Edwards said:
I only personally know about one bull attack,
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Many years ago I was in the press tent at a county show, writing up my caption notes for the local papers (woe betide he who who gets the exhibitors' names wrong),

I looked up to find that the tent had emptied itself. About ten minutes later, back came the gang. It seems that some bulls waiting to enter the arena had started a fight, allegedly due to a cow, in a nearby pen, coming on heat. The only good news, from my point of view, was that none of the other photographers had got close enough to obtain an action shot...
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Many years ago I was in the press tent at a county show, writing up my caption notes for the local papers (woe betide he who who gets the exhibitors' names wrong),

I looked up to find that the tent had emptied itself. About ten minutes later, back came the gang. It seems that some bulls waiting to enter the arena had started a fight, allegedly due to a cow, in a nearby pen, coming on heat. The only good news, from my point of view, was that none of the other photographers had got close enough to obtain an action shot...
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It happens, cows and ewes are brought into season by the presence of a bull or tup. It would take a lot of guts and skill for farmers to break up a fight between bulls, but that's what farmers do . . .

In the case I mentioned, a vet had been called to look at a bull that was apparently limping, the stockman was going to bring the bull outside and walk him up and down for the vet, but the vet (who had a bad reputation) decided that he could just walk into the bulls' pen. The bull objected and he is now paralysed from the neck down, and only survived because the stockman distracted the bull, which then turned on him.
The stockman shouted into his radio, everyone came running and one of the guys had a rifle in his tractor cab because we was shooting foxes, and he saved the stockman.
 
Dael_Pix said:
I go fishing and tend to be ok with sheep.

This week I had a sheep standing still looking at me. Kept putting its ears forward and then backwards. Thought it was going to charge at one point. Thankfully it walked past while I was fishing.

I never like cows and you wouldn't catch me in a field with a bull. Horses are ok but I don't like it when they trot behind you but I've learned that they're ok. They're as bad as cows.
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As Garry says cows are mostly harmless. They are however very nosey. They'll come and stand by you to see what your doing, and sometimes stay there for ages. Dogs can spook them though.
 
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