Cow tipping is not actual and different myths about farm life

I grew up on a dairy farm in rural Ontario, a undeniable fact that often surprises folks I do know. I assume I don’t come throughout as a farm child. 

Today I dwell in a metropolis and sometimes hear folks confidently speak concerning the actuality of farm life in methods I do know are flat out unsuitable. Listed below are a couple of frequent myths and misconceptions about farms, together with the scientific reality. 

Cow tipping isn’t actual

There’s a perception, largely amongst metropolis folks, that nation dwellers prefer to tip over cows for enjoyable (sometimes whereas drunk). The parable is dependent upon a few issues. First, cows sleep standing up, so you may sneak up on them in fields. Second, an individual may push over a cow on their very own. Some variations of the parable additionally state that cows, as soon as tipped, can’t get again up. 

That is, to be clear, an city legend—even the Wikipedia web page for the follow is labeled that means. Jake Swearingen, writing for Fashionable Farmer, identified that there are not any movies on YouTube of somebody efficiently tipping a cow. I checked—there nonetheless aren’t (however there are some humorous fakes). Even so, a number of folks have insisted to me that the follow is actual. It’s not, for 2 causes. 

To begin, cows don’t sleep standing up. It feels ridiculous to me, an individual who grew up on a dairy farm, to quote sources right here—I do know that they lie all the way down to sleep and stand up with none issues. When you want greater than that, although, a 2019 paper revealed in PLos One by researchers on the College of Tennessee exhibits that cows disadvantaged of the flexibility to lie down don’t get the REM sleep they want. A 2020 paper revealed within the Journal of Dairy Science concludes that “with the ability to lie down is a excessive precedence for dairy cows, and animal welfare could be in danger when this habits is thwarted.” Cows sleep mendacity down. 

However let’s think about that cows did sleep standing up, or that you would sneak up on one. That is unlikely—cows are simply spooked—however let’s put that apart. There’s nonetheless an issue: physics. 

Grownup Holstein cows (the black and white cows that you just see on most dairy farms) weigh round 1500 kilos. For comparability: a child grand piano weighs round 500 kilos, and sometimes requires a number of movers to select up. The Fashionable Farmer piece I discussed earlier quotes College of British Columbia professor Margo Lillie, who collectively together with her pupil Tracy Boechler ran the numbers again in 2005. Tipping over a very nonetheless cow would require round 1360 Newtons of pressure; the common individual can solely produce round 660. 

Let’s say you had three folks (probably drunk) who handle to (by some means) sneak up on a cow and exert all of their energy within the actual proper place. Wouldn’t that be sufficient? Presumably, however that’s assuming that the cow doesn’t brace itself in response to being pushed. If the cow braces itself, in response to Lillie and Boechler, you’d want nearer to 5 – 6 folks. And all of that is assuming that the cow doesn’t merely run away or begin trampling folks (which…it’s going to). 

Put merely: Cow tipping—sneaking up on a cow and knocking it over—isn’t actual. It’s a fantasy. 

Bulls don’t hate the colour pink

It’s probably extra of a TV trope than a fantasy, however there’s an concept in common tradition that bulls hate the colour pink and can cost something pink that they see. The origin of this one is clear: bull fighters typically wave pink capes with a purpose to appeal to consideration. 

However there’s an issue: cows can’t actually see the colour pink. A 1998 examine revealed in Visible Neuroscience discovered that cows are dichromatic, that means they solely have two photoreceptors. Most people, in contrast, are trichromats. The one exception is people who’re colorblind. 

Possibly you see the place I’m going with this. Cows, in response to the examine, can detect gentle as much as 555 nm in wavelength; the colour pink is between 620 and 750 nm. Cows can’t see the colour pink. 

Provided that, why do they run after bullfighters waving a pink cape? As a result of the bull fighters are superb at getting a bull’s consideration. Any coloration of cape would work. It’s a must to admit, although: the pink ones look fairly good (to us people, not less than). 

Not each bale is hay

You would possibly suppose “hay” and “straw” are two phrases for a similar factor. It positive looks as if the individuals who make films and TV exhibits do. An episode of The Workplace, for instance, concerned Dwight eager to change into the “hay king”. The difficulty? Each single little bit of supposed “hay” within the scene is definitely straw.

You may be questioning: what’s the distinction? I’m glad you requested. Hay is dried grass, clover, alfalfa, or another factor that livestock together with cows or horses would possibly prefer to eat. It’s typically inexperienced in coloration. Straw, in the meantime, is the dried stalks left over after harvesting wheat, barley, and different grains. It’s inedible, even by livestock, and is usually yellow in coloration. It’s used as bedding, not meals. 

So why do TV exhibits and films get this unsuitable so typically? There’s the apparent—non-farmers don’t work together with both hay or straw frequently, and have a tendency to make use of the phrases interchangeably. However there are sensible causes too. Straw bales, sometimes, are lots tidier than hay bales, that means they appear higher on digital camera. They’re additionally lots much less dusty, which makes them simpler to work with on a set. However straw and hay are completely completely different, and now you realize.