Black cows

Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 30 Apr 2025

Cattle seem to have been confined to barns over the 'winter' for increasingly longer periods in recent years. This may be a fluctuating thing, as I have only paid attention to it lately, due to the discovery of a shortcut from my house to my local railway station across a field occupied by cattle in the warmer months. I generally find that the older you get, the more you take things in your stride - with the exception of moving cattle! There are more calves about than normal, as a percentage, when they turn them out into the open. Meaning that they're less wary and more curious - which can be fun, and is fine unless there is a protective mother still on the scene. Keep your nerve, and act like you're the big guy, but walk close to a fence - this is my cowardly (and possibly overly sensible?) advice. It's all about becoming a routine fixture - if I caught the 07:10 to Edinburgh Monday to Friday, they would likely not even pause from munching the grass. Two to three days a week is probably the minimum required for cow nonchalance regarding your repeated appearance on their pastures. That said, Ayrshire cattle have always seemed to me to be especially fearless - and thankfully they're not on my own shortcut!

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