Cows moo-ing all night long

[Pocket_Pony]

So tell me - why do cows moo? I wouldn’t think they do it when they are calving because that would draw attention. Someone’s cows in my neighborhood have been mooing for at least 12 hours. They are not dairy cows. It is unusual for them to be mooing non-stop like that. I have visions of some old farmer dude going out to feed his cows and having a heart attack and lying in the field somewhere . . . or of a cow stuck in some fencing . . . or something.

I have the phone number of the only neighbor I know who is close to the sound and as soon as it is a reasonable hour I am going to call them to see if it is their cows and if everything is okay. If not, would it be dumb to call the Sheriff’s office to come out and do a check?

I really don’t think cows moo for no reason . . . do they? This is unusual behavior for them that I think is worth noting.

[omare]

could they be weaning calves?

[poltroon]

I hear our neighbor’s cows mooing at night in the summer if they’re in the field near us. I never thought all that much about it, just assumed that when I didn’t hear them they were somewhere else.

But your question reminded me of this:

The problem with the August Full Moon

The problem with the August full moon is that it wakes the sheep up.

The sheep are locked up at night, along with the one stray rooster that doesn’t get along with anyone else, but when the moon is bright it looks like morning, and the sheep wake up, and get bored, and start chasing the rooster for sport. They like the loud sounds the rooster makes, and if he makes those sounds at three in the morning, when all proper animals have gone to sleep, so much the better, and when the windows are open upstairs in the big farm house because it is hot, and August, the sound of the two sheep chasing the one rooster at three in the morning on the night of the full moon echoes through every last bedroom until someone finally gets up and goes outside and rescues the loud angry rooster and yells at the laughing, bleating sheep.

But the problem with the rooster getting chased is that the noise wakes all the other chickens, because chickens stick together and even if they’re in different pens or different sheds or different chicken social clubs they all know the loud squawks mean another chicken, somewhere, is in trouble, and every chicken is hardwired to want every other chicken to always know when there is a single chicken, somewhere, in trouble, and that it might be a sheep or a bear or a bobcat or any one of the half-dozen vehicles and weed wackers and gas-powered chainsaws that all the chickens know are out to get them, personally, every day of their chicken lives, just as soon as they turn their little chicken backs. So now every single last hen and rooster is yelling warnings to all the other hens and roosters, because that is what they do.

The problem with the chickens yelling, though, is that it sets the cows off. The far-away cows, the ones next door, the ones in the cow field, not the sheep pen or the chicken pens but the ones that free-range through wide fields of tall grass and generally have a fine time every single day, …

It continues … it makes me laugh every time I think of it.

So maybe your answer is “October full moon.”

[S1969]

I’ve asked my neighbors before when I have heard their cows. (Luckily I am FB friends with one of them.) Sometimes they have a cow (or two) get separated from the group and they call to their herd. I’m not sure why a whole herd of cows might moo overnight - that seems odd. Never thought about weaning but maybe?

[sid]

My neighbors cows always moo all night long during weaning time. Lasts for a few days.

[Marla_100]

Had this same thing happen once and I suspected one of the pregnant cows was in trouble while calving. She was down and continuosly mooing. Called everyone I could think of including the teenage farmsitter who was taking care of things while owners were out of town.

Nobody did a thing nor would anyone come check on the cow. Sure enough when owners came back home Mon. morning, the cow was DEAD. Stuck calf
and noone to help pull it.

[Texarkana]

Two different neighbors on two different sides of my property have cows and it seems like someone is always mooing constantly.

[SuckerForHorses]

For a few reasons:

They are hungry
A calf has separated from its mother and its mother is bellering at it to return
A cow has separated from the herd and is having a fit

My parents usually have about 30-40 black angus. The only time they seem to make a ruckus is when a wayward calf finds its way to the other side of the fence and then doesn’t want to return.

Their neighbors have cattle, and theirs always seem to be making noise because they are hungry. Their pasture is overgrazed and the owner doesn’t provide enough hay for all of them to get in on the action. They also get out a lot, looking for feed.

[Texarkana]

[QUOTE=SuckerForHorses;8374649]

Their neighbors have cattle, and theirs always seem to be making noise because they are hungry. Their pasture is overgrazed and the owner doesn’t provide enough hay for all of them to get in on the action. They also get out a lot, looking for feed.[/QUOTE]

I would bet money that’s why my neighbors’ cows moo constantly now that you mention it.

I can definitely tell when something is “wrong” like a cow separated. Instead of just constant mooing, it’s a total ruckus.

[TBROCKS]

Mine did it when they were in season.

[Texarkana]

[QUOTE=SuckerForHorses;8374649]

Their neighbors have cattle, and theirs always seem to be making noise because they are hungry. Their pasture is overgrazed and the owner doesn’t provide enough hay for all of them to get in on the action. They also get out a lot, looking for feed.[/QUOTE]

I would bet money that’s why my neighbors’ cows moo constantly now that you mention it.

I can definitely tell when something is “wrong” like a cow separated. Instead of just constant mooing, it’s a total ruckus.

[SuckerForHorses]

And this too.

[QUOTE=TBROCKS;8374672]
Mine did it when they were in season.[/QUOTE]

[cowboymom]

It’s shipping season so this time of year it’s usually weaning.

They’ll moo/bellow while they’re calving, usually heifers. It hurts and they don’t know what’s going on.

If something is bothering them, a dog or something just weird and interesting they will fuss.

If someone is separated they’ll fuss.

When the feed truck arrives they all moo and move in too.

[Epona142]

We have a herd of bulls across the highway from us, and every year during our rut and breeding (goats) the bulls holler at us constantly. Always found that interesting.

[goldenrow]

I would bet they are weaning calves as well. The cows and calves will both “moo” for a couple days, then they will move on with their lives.

We are weaning ours right now, too. We bring the cows home from the summer pasture, and leave the calves there for a couple weeks, then we move them to another farm for winter.

It will quiet down soon.

[Pocket_Pony]

Well, duh! Weaning is not something I thought of . . . we have a lot of neighbors with cows and one just had a calf a couple weeks ago, then the other neighbor’s cows calved in the summer but they were all shipped out already. I can’t see this neighbor’s cows, so I didn’t even think of the calves being weaned, but that is the most likely scenario.

Mr. PoPo herded some loose cows out of the street into their pasture (different neighbor) last week and none of those cows were calling out - but since they were on the other side of the fence but right next to each other, I guess no one was alarmed. The neighbors were right on top of it fixing that fence right away.

For this neighbor, we can see their corner from our corner, so Mr. PoPo walked over and had a look-see this morning to see if anything was out of the ordinary, and he saw two cows with a big bunch of hay and they were moo-ing back and forth with others that he couldn’t see, so I guess that weaning is probably what’s going on.

I feel like PoPo in the Silence of the Cows . . . “Can you hear the cows, Pocket Ponyyyyyyyy???”

[Calvincrowe]

Our neighbor’s 6 cows (all heifers) moo for three reasons:

1. They are hungry. Hay is gone, pasture is crap. They scream at us, rush the fence, begging for something.
2. One of them is out of sight–in a hollow, back in the “barn” (not really a barn, just the area outside of the hay cover. They have no shelter.
3. In season! Wheee! Ms. Holstein spent 12 hours bellowing continuously last weekend, wandering the 60 acres looking for love. Alas, nothing came of it (thank goodness, as Rancher Man is a blithering idiot with no knowledge of animals, ranching, feed or care).

[sascha]

Lack of feed

Lack of water

Being in heat

Separated/weaning

Weird stuff going on (strange vehicles or strange activity)

Apart from being in heat, cowz just don’t make a lot of noise. There is always a reason.

[saddleup]

My next door neighbor has cows. In the spring when they were having their babies one was mooing like crazy. Turned out her calf had died right after it was born, and she was mourning it. It was the saddest sound, and went on for three days. They left the baby with her for 24 hours, then removed it.

Other than that, his cows barely make a peep. They must be well fed.

[Leather]

@sascha;8375018

Weird stuff going on (strange vehicles or strange activity)

Anybody else think of South Park?

Alien: We have experimented with all the beings of Earth, and we have learned that you are the most intelligent and wise.

Cow: Why did you turn some of us inside out?

Alien: Oh, that was Carl’s fault. He’s new.

Alien(Carl): Yeah, sorry about that, my bad!