Cows as a pet

Meet Oscar our pet Steer (cow)

We got Oscar at an animal auction in April 2000. we got him and two other cows. They are actually dairy cows.
The price was right. $5.00-$15.00 per calf. Most Dairy farmers don't want the bull calves. So they will bring them to the auction. Sadly, some dairy farmers will kill the bull calves.

Our intention for these cows was to have them butchered. It turned out, the day the guy came to pick
up the cows for butchering, Oscar seemed to have disappeared. but, shortly after the butcher left, Oscar seemed to have appeared again.. I have no idea where he was hiding.. but as it turned out, he ended up being a pet cow..

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Oscar loves Sybil. They play well together.. For a cow, he has quite a personality. Oscar loves to be brushed. He loves attention. He loves the dogs. sometimes he will run with them and even hunt with them.. Oscar eats turkey/game finisher.. Actually, he is not very picky. He loves bread. If he see me with bread in my hand. He will come running to me. We have a pond with fish, so I put bread in the pond for the fish.. So, It goes something like this.
A piece of bread of Oscar, a piece of bread for the fish. Then there is the my treeing walker coonhound that loves fishing.
he will sit in the pond for hours watching the fish after I throw bread in.

If the weather is bad, or if it rains, he will generally stay in his house. Oscar seems very content. He don't seem to mind he is the only cow.. He has many other friends..

I have had several different cows in the past, but, never one that had the personality as Oscar.
Whoever said cows are stupid?? I don't think they are.. In fact, Oscar knows his name, he comes when you call him,

if he goes into the garage and I tell him "no" he will listen. If anyone is thinking of getting a cow as a pet. I would suggest a male. but, it is very important that they are banded and dehorned at a very young age. Otherwise, you could have an aggressive cow at maturity... The reason why I don't suggest females, is when they go into heat, you stand a better chance of them trying to get out of the fence. especially if there are bulls near by..

HERE IS A STRANGE STORY

March 2004, I had a baby llama die. My husband took the dead baby out of the pen and layed her in the driveway until he got the gate on his truck open. For some reason, Oscar come running over when he seen the baby. He stood over that baby very gentle.. He would not let any of the dogs near her. It is though he was protecting her. We left him Oscar go for awhile just to see what he wanted to do with this baby llama. He just kept putting his down to her.. Then when my husband put the baby llama in the back of his truck, Oscar stood there with his head in the back of the truck. When my husband pulled away in his truck, Oscar followed him and mooed at him.. To this day, I never did figure out why he did this..
Oscar seems to have an attachment to the llamas.. a few years ago, Becky (my female llama) had a baby out of her pen. Oscar stood by her the whole time.. when the baby was born, Oscar protected the baby. My husband picked the baby up to bring her into the pen, so she would be warm in their house, and Oscar followed him to the llama pen.

Here are some definitions of proper names for cattle:
Cattle is actually considered a "Bovine animal"
BULL:	Male Bovine (in tact)
Bulling:	A cow in heat or estrous is sometimes said to be "bulling"
Calf:	A young cow or bull. generally under the age of about 10 months.
COW:	Any Female bovine
Dam:	A female parent
Dry Cow:	Any female cow that is not giving milk.
Heifer:	A young female beef or dairy cow. Usually one that has not had a calf
Steer:	A bull castrated while still a calf.

The purpose of this site is to share and exchange
experience raising different type of animals.

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E-Mail Sybil at sybil@sybilsden.com