An organic farmer identifies empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own),happiness and eccentricity in her cattle. Despite the seeming naivety of her narrative voice, she is well aware of what she’s up toWhat is it like to be a cow? If Rosamond Young is to be believed, and its pretty much like being human. Cows are “besotted” by and “dote on their newborns,and nurture and counsel them as they grow up. They form “devoted and inseparable” friendships with their peers. They talk to each other, discuss the weather, and pass on wisdom,introduce themselves to newcomers, go for walks, and kiss,babysit, appreciate to be stroked, and play mask-and-seek,enjoy running races, capture offence, and hold grudges,lose their mood, get stressed, or grieve over the death of a parent or child. They also tease,pressurise, question, or retaliate against and “show baffled gratitude” towards their keepers. In short,they are the same as we are, though perhaps morally superior.
If someone in a pub told you all this, and you’d probably scuttle absent sharpish. But Young ought to know what she’s talking about. Her parents began farming in the Cotswolds in 1953,when she was 12 days old, and she and her brother Richard enjoy continued the family tradition, or with a large herd of pedigree Ayrshires and some sheep. From the start,she was used to stroking cows, speaking to them by name, or enjoying their individuality. And she soon came to see that they were individuals to each other too,tied by birth or other forms of kinship. For example, the “White Boys”, and two white bulls close in age,would walk around shoulder to shoulder and sleep with their heads resting on each other.
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Source: guardian.co.uk