Cattle and horses

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flirtygerty

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Having literally a nightmare, it's now after 2 30 am and I should be asleep, cattle have been brought in to an adjoining barn to my horses, they are also awake, having just checked, earlier this evening the cows and calves escaped, no problem, contacted the farmer, most were returned to the barn, some still loose, cows are still unsettled and noisy, hence a 2 am check, couldn't see any feed or water for them and very little bedding, what bedding there is, is saturated with urine, I heard it squelch as the cows got up, there is hay in the barn but sectioned off, an educated guess would be a cow and calf has been seperated, the cow in the barn with a full udder, the calf outside with the others, hence the constant calling, I am wary of cows with calves, so if the escapes continue it will affect me and the horses, I intend having a hopefully diplomatic chat with the farmer later today, but what I need to know is this, is it common to have little or no bedding when cattle are brought in for the winter and limited feed, some feed was brought today, but didn't seem a lot, given that there is a fair bit of hay already in the barn they can't get at, I am tired and cranky and downing a large glass of wine so I don't hear the cow calling, it does seem to be the same cow, she must be a Newcastle lass, being so loud. I am normally up at 6am so anytime after 11pm doesn't exist for me and I am really hoping this won't go on too much longer, being no spring chicken I need my sleep.
exhausted rant over, will try again to go to bed, night all
 
I'm not sure what's 'normal' regarding Feed but the lack of bedding doesn't surprise me. My friend and her husband own and run a dairy farm and there isn't much in the way of bedding. They are fully mucked out twice a day though so they aren't standing in their own mess. Imagine how much straw you'd go through to bed down 200 cows every day!
Hope you eventually got some sleep!
 
Am surrounded by cattle-this time of year they are kept on yards with sawdust scattered thinly on top-yards are scraped twice a day. Some sheds with the calves have straw. I would ignore this event personally, stock gets out from time to time, even horses..
 
Re bedding it depends on the system, if they are in one yard, a foldyard they should have some bedding, a deep litter system is best, they have to be bedded up, whether it is expensive or not. Good management is good management. Bare concrete leads to injury and dirty animals, which will mean they will not sell well [if beef]
If on cubicles, the concrete will be scraped daily and they will lie on a raised stall. Dairy cows have cow mats or sawdust, straw is unlikely if there is a slurry system as it clogs the machinery.
Re feed, it is more than possble that the farmer was not organised, no one will want animals to lose condition, there are, of course, bad stockmen. They will take a day to settle in, they are probably moving a lot more than normal at the moment and producing a lot of the wet green stuff. They MUST have food and water or they will die.
 
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The cattle were brought in 3 days ago now and settled well, I am aware escapes happen, my four went walkabout in the pitch black, given there is a potential 900 acres here, I was lucky they didn't go far, it's a new house and field, once I sort out dodgy gates and fencing and flooding, it will be perfect, landlord does very little, although I will nag about the potholes in the road, having already lost one car to them.
Animal husbandry is low on the list of priorities here, I try to shut my eyes to the state of the sheep, when peeking through the gates to the cows barn today, no obvious food for them despite the loose ones being returned to the barn, but the farmer was here at t time and the herd is settled and quiet, so presumably have full tummies, I ended up sticking loo roll in my ears and shutting windows and curtains, to get some sleep, the real problem is the close proximity of the barns to our cottage, literally the other side of the garden wall, the plus is I can hear any problems and deal with it quickly, I had an agenda for today, ride, muck out my barn, then tidy my hay area, I didn't get to ride because I was up late, but hey ho, these things happen
 
wait till they start weaning and then bulling and then turning out then bringing in again-I have a great memory of my then husband running down the filed in his dressing gown (nothing underneath) flapping in the wind with a bit of blue pipe in his hand whilst blue words came out of his mouth at full volume-2 bulls were bellowing at each other at 4am and they had been doing it for hours and he finally lost the plot, I loved living on a beef farm but cattle are very noisy when anything different happens in their world
 
We live next door to cows, and I can pretty much guarantee you will get used to it. I do notice when they take the babies off as there is a lot of noise overnight, but prefer that to the shop burglar alarm from down the road where we lived before.

I have to say though that the neighbours' cows have a lot of bedding, about 6ft deep by springtime (!), and always seem well fed.

As to the getting loose, until last year their cows were paraded up and down the village street every day, and in spring that would be a whole heard at canter for the first time or two. That certainly put the wind up the horse I had at the time, but we taught him to heard cattle, and then he was OK. I was a bit worried when a big orange Bull (sorry, not knowledgeable on cows) joined his girls, but TBH apart from looking impressive he has not been such a problem.

The only time they caused us a bother was when we had a huge pear tree (size of our house) and the pears fell and fermented. Some of the cows got a taste for them and would climb through the ditch and hedge, and I would find them drunk on the drive. We fenced with a rail and then this did not happen.

As to your situation I am sure you will soon blank out the noise, and if you have concernes re animal welfare I would contact the RSPCA. They may be able to reassure you over the phone, but if not they may visit, and if all is OK they will leave again.
 
ah yes, huge black bulls next door with just some stock fencing between us lol (looks kind of weedy next to them), great fun when they start bellowing in the middle of the night, they get driven up and down the road almost daily at certain times of year, then there's lambing inside and quads taking them out through the night, cutting hay/silage and working on drainage until 12pm. then there's my 4 cockerels lol. Horses used to them now, one pony wants to talk to them and the horse wants to round them up.
 
Cows, sheep etc have a completely different way of digesting things than horses so do not need constant access to forage as we are used to with horses, it may look cruel but I doubt the farmer is keeping them short of feed, its simply not in their interests
 
Our milking cows, all 252 at present, are now "in" for the winter, they live in raised cubicles with rubber cow mats which are cleaned and re sprinked twice daily with lime and sawdust. They are fed twice daily with silage and maize, and have loafing areas outside where they can get fresh air and use the wall mounted back scratchers. The dry cows live in barns, until calved, and are bedded on straw that is bedded up every other day. With all good intentions and husbandy (which we pride ourselves on), just before bedding on the second day they can look pretty dirty and smelly! The can get very noisy when we take the calves away, which is paramount within the first 12 hours so the cow doesnt get mastitis and can join the milking herd asap (purpose of the job).
Unfortunately they can and DO escape. They have no understanding that Christmas night is NOT the time to go cavorting down the main road at 1 am. When our front door goes BANG BANG in the middle of the night we are already getting our wellies on before we answer it. The police have been common visitors!
Hope it all works out for you and you get used to the noise x
 
twiggy2 said:
husband running down the filed in his dressing gown (nothing underneath) flapping in the wind with a bit of blue pipe in his hand whilst blue words came out of his mouth at full volume
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mastermax said:
They have no understanding that Christmas night is NOT the time to go cavorting down the main road at 1 am. When our front door goes BANG BANG in the middle of the night we are already getting our wellies on before we answer it. The police have been common visitors!
Hope it all works out for you and you get used to the noise x
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Yep - sounds like a cow farm to me - Welcome to the madness :)
I didnt even get as far as the dressing gown once when the OH dragged me out of bed to help round up the latest escapee's. Made for an interesting conversation with the police man feebly trying to contain 10 cows with his arms waving from behind a wheelie bin!!
 
I love cows however yes they are noisy when anything changes in their routine. My son in law has a dairy farm next to us and they are noisy at times. It doesn't bother me, born and bred in the country and I've almost always lived next to cow or cattle farms. SIL and daughter have very good cow husbandry. Any time I've been in any of the cow barns the cows have ad-lib feed and always seem to have clean straw bedding over their cow mats. Their milker cows are mucked out 3 times a day and the calves and about to calve cows who live in other barns have fresh straw put down every morning and night. That's dairy cows though, I have lots of friends who are cattle farmers and I have noticed they are not kept at the same level of cleanliness and care.
 
mastermax said:
Our milking cows, all 252 at present, are now "in" for the winter, they live in raised cubicles with rubber cow mats which are cleaned and re sprinked twice daily with lime and sawdust. They are fed twice daily with silage and maize, and have loafing areas outside where they can get fresh air and use the wall mounted back scratchers. The dry cows live in barns, until calved, and are bedded on straw that is bedded up every other day. With all good intentions and husbandy (which we pride ourselves on), just before bedding on the second day they can look pretty dirty and smelly!
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This is pretty much how ours are kept, apart from we use chopped straw in the cubicles not sawdust and we also have a loose yard for milkers who don't like cubicles. The milkers are the only ones that get bedded every day, all the others are on every other day. Cattle are designed to eat their food quickly then to go and lay down and chew it again. If you watch a cow eating you will see it swallow and then if you watch the neck you can see a ball come back up and they will start chewing again.

Why don't you show an interest and ask them about their system? Then you can ask any questions you have about it and if you think they animals aren't being cared for at an appropriate standard you can take it further.
 
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