@Where_sMyWhite You were using a horse though, right?
Nope… I drove a car out to where the loose cattle were (usually < 4-5 of them), sometimes used the car (parked) to help block a possible exit and then me on foot just easing them back through the fence or used the car to slowly drive them to a safer place. If I had a trainee, that was it or miss as the trainee was often afraid of the cows and wasn’t effective enough to stop the cattle from blowing past.
As I said, mostly beef cattle, either mommas and their babies (or just the calves), PG moms, or younger cattle on pasture (or what passed for pasture in CO 
) just growing up on the way to a feedlot.
If I did find a spot where the fence was down, sometimes I’d put up a strand of the yellow ‘police caution’ tape to help at least with a vision barrier. 
Really learned how to move them without stirring them up… much easier when they’re much more relaxed.
Often dispatch would be looking through their book of stockowners to see who we might be able to call for help. Most stockowners (assuming they were in the vicinity) were willing to come out and help as they know each other and next time it might be their cattle that got out.
Bulls were a different story but rarely encountered bulls. Either cows or steer.
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I think the OP has very little experience with cattle. I too have very little experience with cattle. My only experience came when my then husband’s co-worker rode to our house, because he knew we had horses, and asked for help moving a dairy herd from one field to another since he couldn’t get it done alone.
You obviously know what you’re doing and have extensive experience with cattle but I think it may be a bad idea to try to move cattle on foot when you are alone and don’t really know what you’re doing. I know the OP is looking for tips, which is good , but don’t you think in person instruction would be safer and that attempting to relocate the cattle alone is unsafe for a person not familiar with them?
Do cattle give cues about their intentions and mood like horses do? In other words, can you read them once you’ve been around them enough? Is there some clue they give if they have decided to run you over? 
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I’ve decided my cattle wrangling days are over. While I was at the feed mill, the owners were telling me all kinds of horror stories about working with cattle and these guys are very experienced. One guy had to shoot one of his when it got out. 
Im glad my horses don’t have horns!
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I don’t blame you. It was fun when I helped move the dairy herd but I was mounted and cattle tend to move away from horses.
I just don’t know enough about them to feel at all safe around them on foot.
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Actually, I didn’t have any cattle experience until my stint volunteering for LE. Often in the beginning, the deputy on my usual shift who was more experienced than I would respond and I learned many of the trick from him (including don’t mess with the bulls).
After a time, I would respond solo if the job needed to be done (loose cattle). Sometimes I’d just try to hold them in place while dispatch was looking for the stockowner. I would sometimes drive along the fence line to see if I could spot a likely spot to push them back through (the loose ones). At least then I’d like what direction to work towards.
Helpful is they are herd animals… the calves wanted their mama’s. The lone or few cattle didn’t like being away from their buddies which helped. Much more of a challenge when there were no cattle in sight on the right side of the fence.
Range fencing in CO is pretty flimsy. Sometimes using the cows’ desire to be back with the herd along with a likely spot is all it took. I was surprised the first few times I/we pushed and they’d pop right through the barbed wire. Something I would never do to a horse because their hide is so much thinner.
Perhaps an advantage is the cattle I was dealing with were mostly onesie-twosies and really not ‘contained’ such as those in a more confined pasture or feedlot (or whatever you call where a dairy cow lives). They also had very little human contact for the most part. The bulls were turned out until the cows were all bred and then the bulls were pulled off pasture. The cows often lived on pasture year around with possible supplemental hay if really needed. Calves the only interaction when they were young for vaccinations, ear tagging, castration and then left alone to grow up with a herd split when the weaners (whatever you call them) were pulled off mom and put in their own pasture.
It was push 'em back or spend hours just watching them being a PITA grazing along the roadway. Necessity is the mother of invention.
I will confess there were a few times where the thoughts of a tasty BBQ did float through my head. 
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There was a very funny thread a few years ago about a loose dairy herd and a police officer’s reaction to it. I wish I could remember the title…
The post is contained in this thread Rude Awakenings -- Loose Bull
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i have Highlands and they are very friendly and docile. Not one of them has ever gotten out (good fences and plenty of good grazing inside), but with my herd, they come when called, when I call. I think most herds are obedient to their caregivers. The other herds around here can also be called by their owners. So, my advice would be to leave the cattle alone and try to get their person to come and lead them back home. OR…use a ATV and move them from behind without a lot of pressure. Basically swing back and forth faaar behind them to keep them bunched and compliment them in an authentic nice voice when they go the right direction and give them a gruff NO, WRONG CHOICE when they try to go off. If you get too close to a group of cattle you will lose the ability to correct them with your own position…so keeping a nice distance behind gains you a lot of leverage. If they canter or trot you are applying too much pressure. If they stop to graze, not enough…up your energy.
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I agree with all of the above. Cattle deserve respect and like horses, quickly figure out if they need to respect you or not based on how you respond to their body language.
I disagree that you are safer on a horse - it all depends on the context. But then, we run a 600 head breeding herd of horned beef cattle so mostly bulls, cows and calves and very few steers. I have been charged while on a horse as well as on foot, and both times were my mistake. Luckily I have learned from my mistakes and have some great mentors (and I like to read & observe). Thankfully I have good horses, but since I train a lot of green horses I often dismount and push cattle on foot leading the green horse … or pony a green horse off my experienced mare to be effective.
In a cattle loose on an interstate situation you would never bring a horse into that situation… it would be safer to first get them off the road because in a car vs cow or car vs horse accident both parties often die.
There are fence out vs fence in states and dairy vs beef breeds are all different (btw in the western rangeland states most cattle are branded AND ear tagged since believe it or not cattle rustling aka stealing is still a thing and brand inspectors are important people in the west) but the original resources I posted are interesting if you want to read more on how cow body language is different than horse body language, which is how I originally interpreted the OP’s question.
As @Where_sMyWhite stated, sometimes you’re in a situation where you have to move cattle on foot. If my horse is well trained to be a cow horse (or the cattle are well trained ie roping steers or sorting steers in an arena setting) that’s a whole different situation than coming across 1 or 2 loose cattle on a lonely Colorado mountain road… animals in confinement act much differently than loose on the range or in a road (or in suburbia!). The flight zones are completely different and the book I suggested up thread discusses that. I have moved 91 head of horned breeding bulls, cows and babies by myself up the mountain on foot before… but I also have had horrible horrible problem days working cattle, especially in the corral situation where you’re sorting feral stock to put on a cattle truck. Anyway these are all advanced moves though after decades of horse experience and trial by fire on the cattle stockmanship front due to marrying into a ranching family.
As I stated in my posts above, dealing with loose cattle is a job best left to the stock owners or animal control. We have lots of people who love seeing our cattle doing “conservation grazing” so they always call us first and we’re almost always there before animal control. But ours when overpressured also jump fences like deer. 
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This yes if either party are available. In my case, no animal control (at all really) and stock owner if we could figure out who they were and reach them.
The cattle I had to deal with had, IIRC, pretty much no horns and were beef, not dairy.
While I would not consider myself ‘cow savvy’ what I did learn is keeping them calm and low key was really helpful. That allowed me to be more effective in getting back through a fence, any fence. Based on my very limited experience, some of the cattle I was able to successfully push back through a fence I don’t know that I’d want to meet in a contained area. Going back through the barbed wire fence wasn’t really containing them so I don’t think they felt the same as if they’d been contained in an area with sturdier fencing.
CO is a fence 'em out state and yes, brand inspectors. We would try to get in touch with the brand inspector but that wasn’t always possible on Sundays (when I usually volunteered). If a particular herd of cattle became a habitual PITA (not that the cows themselves were the issue, the fencing often was), we would try to contact the brand inspector to let them know about the problem.
These roads were not lonely mountain roads, these were lonely flatter than a pancake and straight as a stick roads where most drove well in excess of the posted speed limit (often 55mph+). Think Kansas not the Rockies 
Priority was get the cattle behind a fence before the cow became a pancake and the vehicle a smashed mess.
FWIW, this thread has been interesting for me to read and learn about aspects of cattle movement and management other than the wild and woolly critters I dealt with.
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I had no idea until I learned from my neighbors that some people ride cows. Apparently if you have a breed that is supposed to be docile some people will buy them to ride them. I only heard about 2 or 3 in our area that do this but it seems to be a “thing”
I think I will stick to horses! 
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I agree, this thread has been incredibly interesting.
And yes lonely flat rural roads are a different beast than lonely mountain roads… Colorado is a beautiful state!
Thanks OP for your curiosity that sparked this conversation. 
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It was interesting to hear from everyone as well as their suggestions. I appreciate it.
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