By Travis Meteer
You’re pulling back into your driveway after a night spent watching the fireworks and celebrating independence. Then, you see pairs of eyes staring at you, from outside the fence. The cattle are out. What follows is a night spent gathering the herd, searching for calves, and fixing fence.
Fireworks and Cattle Behavior
No doubt, your cattle getting out is the worst-case scenario. Some cattle will show very little signs of stress during a fireworks display. However, the reality is that fireworks, or sudden, loud noises, can cause immediate panic in cattle. The sympathetic nervous system is activated, triggering the classic fight-or-flight response in your herd. As a prey animal their immediate response to stress is to escape, charging the fence. Furthermore, as herding animals who tend to move together, it only takes one cow to start a stampede capable of getting through the fence. Cattle are especially sensitive to unfamiliar sounds and don’t have the ability to recognize that fireworks aren’t a threat to them. Even “calm” or “broke” cattle could react unpredictably under this stress. This could result in injury, property damage, broken fence, and of course loose cattle.
The Impact of Stress on Your Cattle
In the short term, cattle may show these signs:
- Alertness, raised head, wide eyes
- Repeated vocalizing, restlessness, circling
- Loss of appetite, reluctance to lie down
- Fence running, charging away from the noise, trying to jump or push through barriers
- Lameness or injury
Source : illinois.edu