Cow Chips: Cows Drool

One of the more amusing things that I have seen the cows do is drool. When we feed we will bring bales of hay over by the manger and break them open. Once we have all of the hay out and broken open we will start to feed it. We do this to avoid a couple of problems that arise from breaking the hay open in the manger. First the cows will fight over the hay, if the bale is broken in the manger this fighting has more time to get more intense before we start to feed. This can cause the cows to actually break the manger down trying to push each other out of the way. The other problem is that we run the risk of poking an eye out with the pitch fork since the cows are not about to pull their heads out of the manger so that we can scatter the hay. What does this have to do with the cows drooling? It takes a few minutes to get the hay out, broke open and ready to start feeding. The cows react to this the same was dogs do when they are about to be fed, they drool.

The big difference between cows and dogs in this respect is the amount of drool. You have not seen drool until you see a cow drool. The drool explains why the boards in the bottom of the manger are always soaked and slimy. Some cows will drool more rapidly than others; others do not drool at all. The most aggressive cows seem to be the ones who drool the most. I will purposely take my time sometimes just to watch the reaction. I am sure that the cows do not appreciate my experiments. I am always amused to see the large stringers of drool hanging from their waiting jowls.

Although there is no apparent life altering lesson to be learned from the fact that a cow will drool like a dog, I did learn something about myself. I am easily amused. What is even more interesting is that my family is easily amused, especially my kids. They thought that this story of cows drooling was one of the funniest ones that I have told them. For me it is one more amusing thing for me to look forward to when I go to feed the cows.