Does anyone keep a pet cow or as a companion to their horses? I heard they were good for your pasture.
My neighbor has 5 mini cows out with his one horse. They are cute. My horses were staring at them when they moved to the paddock next to my pasture. Within a week I had to coax one of my horses to come in to eat, she looked to be having a nice conversation with the belted cow. Wish I got a photo of that!
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i have 8 horses and 8 Highlands together in the same pasture. They segregate, but are companionable enough.
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Cows graze differently than horses, so we can rotate, but we donât graze them at the same time because the stress horses put on the forage is different than what the cows do. Horses bite down low and cows grab the grass with their tongues and cut it with their bottom teeth. Maybe it works where you have different types of forage, but here, itâs better to separate.
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They are good for the pastures, poop is much richer than horse poop.
Disadvantages would be horse picking on the steer, who canât defend itself without horns. Horses WILL run a steer around just for entertainment. Geldings are usually worse than mares, but mares will get after cattle too. Heaven help the cattle if horse is a bit âcowyâ, they never let them rest long! Perhaps horses who work for a living, ranch horses who get tired most days, are more likely to not bother the cattle.
We rotated the horses and cattle thru our pastures and paddocks, just never together. The heifer would âraceâ one gelding each morning. Both started at the gates, ran down the fenceline until horse got ahead, then both split off to graze. It was their own game, other horses and steer did not play like that.
Each species tends to like different plants for grazing. So with frequent rotation of pastures and paddocks, nothing got overgrazed. The heifer liked the roughage under the fencelines, saved me a lot of trimming work! She did test the electric daily, by touching the wire with a whisker.
We did put in time to get the young animals coming when called, handful of hay pellet rewards were greatly appreciated!! Then haltered and walked. This was in case they should ever get loose, so we could catch them. They wore nylon collars with bells, also as an aid in locating them. They got haltered and walked in and out of their barn stalls daily, which kept them easy to handle at all times. Start when they are little, they CAN be as nice as a horse to lead places and load in the trailer. Our cattle were 4H projects, needed to be easy to handle, load, stay calm in new places where we showed them. Being the âmeanâ Mom, I saw no reason they could not be as nice to deal with as a good horse is, and DDs work with them showed! Beyond being bouncy now and then, they stayed very nice to deal with. They got stalled at night because they were dehorned, small with no defenses and we live on the edge of suburbia with those problems of loose dogs at night.
Cattle, especially heifers/cows, are quite smart, so do not underestimate their thinking. Steers, like geldings, do not come in heat, quieter, so would probably be better companions, or âvisitorsâ to the farm if you plan to put them in the freezer later.
Cows (female cattle) can get VERY determined to find a bull when in heat monthly, causing problems. You could breed her via AI, have a friend with a bull breed her, should you enjoy watching another calf. Milking breeds will need to be milked even with the calf on her, because they produce so MUCH milk. Not milÄ·ing her out DAILY, can lead to mastitus, with damage to her udder.
Plan on castrating any bull calves. Bulls are not anything you want to have around, in any size.
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If you have room to divide your pasture, the cattle do enrich it if rotated through, but I wouldnât keep them in with horses.
Steers are a pain in the butt. They do better in the freezer. If I wanted pets, I would get a couple of cows or heifers. They will not be lonely and you always have the option for freezer beef, if you decide to breed them. When we have steers in our herd, they annoy the cows (sometimes even mounting them and interfering with a shy, young bull) and harass the bull. They have lower feed requirements because they arenât pregnant and arenât breeding, so keeping them from getting too fat and, our other animals well fed, is a challenge. They can be more goofy and unpredictable than the cows. They also seem to get into more trouble with fencing and generally cause more trouble.
A steer just isnât naturally in the herdâs social structure. Our herds are more peaceful when itâs just the mama cows and their calves, with the bull. When we remove a group of steers to their own pen, we spend more time fixing their fences and they are much more spooky (think of all those motherless steers driven on cattle drives and stampeding). In the old days, feedlots used to keep an old mama cow in with each group of new steers to calm them down. Weâre more than ready to send the steers to freezer camp by the time theyâre big enough because of their antics.
In contrast, two cows make for nice company as long as they are similar in size to keep both well fed. However, if you keep any bovine, you need a headgate, at minimum, and a chute to move them into to make unpleasant procedures easier. Even halter trained cows, like ours, donât do well if you vaccinate them in hand. They associate haltering with the shots and good luck haltering them again!
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Moonlitoaksranch has a lot of good points. I was coming at things from the âpetâ angle, keeping a couple at a time. We are not a meat producer with large groups of mixed cattle. Head gate is a good idea for the vaccinations needed yearly. Even the mini cattle are bigger than you! And âacting lIke a cowâ means they will knock into you and other things when they are scared, hurt or not willing to cooperate!
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Good point for those not familiar with cattle. A horse will go around you. A cow will go over you. Itâs not personal, itâs the way they move. Horses in a herd give each other space so they can maneuver quickly to avoid danger. Cattle move shoulder to shoulder to act as a large mass of battering ram. They lack speed, so the use combined force to move through or over when frightened.
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Adding a very firm yes nod to having a head gate for unpleasant procedures.
I am the queen of drive by vaccinating. I literally will walk into a group of calves, heifers, or cows and âoops, bee sting in the hamstring, sorryâ my way through while my boss consults and checks off our list of victims. Knock on wood, I have not so far had any animal kick at me for 2ccs in the hamstring. Hell, some of the older dry cows I will even give them a couple of âbee stingsâ to get 10ccs of pre-calving vitamins into them without restraining them.
However, there are many things that canât be administered by drive by needling and for which snubbing with a halter would still be insufficient restraint to get the job done safely. Administering a bolus, giving a larger needle of anything, particularly anything uncomfortable (most abx, selenium), etc. are not safe to do without the cow head on one side of a barrier and the rest of their body on the other. Even then, you still have to be very careful with them. They WILL do their best to knock you down or kick if they are unhappy or frightened.
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We have HighlandsâŠit took a few years and several tries to get a good chute. Headgate not an issueâŠGETTING there however was a problem. Now, about four designs later, weâve got it under control. Most of my shots are drive-by. Cattle are in this photo if you look closely.
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If you are needing a pet you keep in a stall at times, I would not recommend any cattle.
Cattle manure is a big wet glob after another and in stalls makes a terrible wet mess, no matter the bedding used.
Young calves may eat horse tails, so will many other pets, goats especially.
If you need a pet to just keep across the fence, that would be easier to manage all around, keeping all safe from each other, feeding as each needs and rotating pastures.
Our horses always watch cattle out in the pastures as they come and go and like to follow them when they walk along the horse pasture fence, have their routines to visit with each other at some times, in certain places.
Here two of several bulls in the winter bull pasture side resting and two young geldings visiting with them in the gelding trap, the grey two, the sorrel four and bossing the youngster to stay away from âhisâ bulls, all happy for the company.
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So you want to keep female cattle as pets? Cows are girls, steers are castrated males. Steers are NOT cows. Being specific means you will get answers about that particular gender.
You do not have to raise the cattle to eat. Ours were 4H projects, destined to be sold when we got them.
However, being able to catch, handle, load any cattle you purchase, can be really important later on. If cows, they might need to visit the bull, which could require a trailer ride. In California, livestock has to load to get out ahead of fires.
Headgate is useful for needed vaccinations, perhaps TB testing on milking cows or the entire (milk or beef) herd in TB positive deer areas. This is required yearly in some States, to keep the cattle herds clean of TB and other diseases. You might have required shots for your area to prevent cattle death or prevent pesky problems you donât want to deal with daily, to cure. The State does not care if the animal is a pet or meat animal, it has to be tested for disease if they require it.
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If the practicality of bovines is a bit much (it is not necessarily as simple as putting hay/pasture in front of them and watching them create beautiful pastures for you), then perhaps a different species would be better?
I work with cattle, love them, call some of them pets but wouldnât actually want one as a pet. They are big, smelly, and can have surprisingly delicate constitutions. Keeping them indoors is a lot of work.
If you are speaking specifically of cows and not the term cattle in general and have no interest in steers, well, I donât wish an in heat cow on anyone that isnât planning to breed her. She will come into heat about every 21 days and bawl her fool head off for around 24 hours+/- She will also likely mount any creature that will stand for her nonsense for a day or so right around her heat too. This can include unwitting humans or those that are just not paying sufficient attention. Fun times, not. We keep heifers of different sizes separated for the safety of the smaller ones.
Even steers can come with their own issues. Some are born âbullishâ and it doesnât matter how soon you castrate them, they will always welcome a fight if the opportunity arises. That is not normal, but is an issue that you should be aware of.
If you are thinking of keeping uncastrated male cattle, I would strongly suggest that that would be a bad idea all round.
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I had a cow some years back. She was a Holstein, and she was simply adorable. I got her because my former neighbor used to be the local knacker man, and he would bring home living horses, ponies, and cows that he was going to slaughter, if they were still in good enough condition. I asked him if I could have her (and a pony as well) that he brought home. She had apparently had mastitis, and they had thrown a bunch of antibiotics at her. She lost weight, and started passing blood. When I met her, she was scrawny and sickly, but I was determined to try and save her. I know nothing about cows, other than that they have four stomachs.
I fed her mashes with yogurt and probiotics, and she came back. In fact, she became the fattest Holstein I have ever seen. Usually, their hips stick out and they are kind of angular. Not her. She looked like a huge black and white Angus.
She would come when I called, running and bucking and shaking her head. She gave disgusting cow kisses. She was alot of fun. She lived in with several horses in a fifteen acre pasture, but she preferred to stay off by herself.
Another neighbor, who had seen her at the dairy farm she had been at saw her in my field, and asked me where Iâd gotten her. I told him her story, and he said, âdamn, that cow looks GREAT!â He suggested that she could return to the dairy farm, but we decided that she probably had issues that would prevent her from actually being good for milking.
I donât remember having issues with her coming into heat. I mean, sheâd moo all the time when she saw me, and anyone she thought would give her a treat. She learned to love apples and carrots.
Anyway, if I had space, Iâd take another cow in a minute. Iâd probably like a smaller one, however.
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I have Longhorns and OTTBsâtogether. Sounds odd, but I need cattle/livestock to retain the ag exemption on this property. When I got them, horses didnât count as livestock and I donât have fences for sheep or goats. Since then (17 years ago), Iâm down to 2 longhorns and now horses count, so I donât need so many cattle. Until 2019, had 3 OTTBs. I lost 2âone to melanoma and, completely unexpectedly, one 3 months later to a weird neurological disease, so just had 1 OTTB through 2020. He hooked up with the steers and they became so attached itâs comical. Heâs a 16.3, elegant mover, super chill guy and hung with the steers to the point of anxiety when he didnât know where they were. Odd couples to say the least. They come up to the barn to eat when he does, and they wait for him to finish. I just adopted another OTTB at Christmas to keep Roo company, and of course at first, he was freaked by the longhorns, but now heâs cool with them. Roo prefers horse company, but he hasnât abandoned his bovine buddies. They all 4 now hang out! From a pasture standpoint, cattle can deal with parasites that affect horses and vice versa. Soâmy understanding from cattle and horse vetsâis that they are very complimentary in that way. I donât separate them. Longhorns in general are pretty docile cattle, and the steers are pretty chill. My OTTBs will get revved up and run and buck in circles around them, trying to get them to play, but itâs more entertainment for me than anything else!
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Wow, what kind of cattle do you raise? Iâve never had trouble with my cows bawling when in heat. They do mount each other, but they are not noticeably agitated or difficult when in heat.
Hmm, are you talking about club heifers? If you give a steer or heifer hormone injections, absolutely yes on acting hormonal. I dislike being around 4H cattle or FFA animals because they jack them up with hormones around here. The steers are nuts.
Susan_p: We donât do use growth hormones. We raise grass fed cattle and sell beef at a premium. Our cows are mild mannered. They would make good pets. I think itâs great that you want a pet cow. I would recommend two because they are herd animals. Do you have an extra large stall for them to share? They would be quite happy with a run in shed. You could put up a gate to bring them in at night.
We have designed several chute systems. Dr. Grandin has an excellent design for small cattle farms. Basically, itâs a curved, narrow chute going to the squeeze or head gate. Our first cute was just a wall with a bull gate and a chain. That would work for just two bovines.
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I will fully admit to having a pet cow. I donât know anyone that raises cattle that doesnât get attached. Cattle wonât make you rich, so you donât bother raising them unless you actually like the critters. You keep your cows and bull, so they have names and you get to know them.
Our pet is Fiona. Sheâs 12 and retired from making babies. Our excuse for keeping her is that she does the nativity at the school every year. She loads in the trailer better than most horses, leads perfectly, loves scratches and hugs (our sonâs fault), takes treats gently from your hand, comes when called. Sheâs here âtil she passes away.
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I work with Holsteins. Calf heats are the worst. âShut up already, youâre not ready for a visit from the insemination yet!â But, many will also be vocal on subsequent heats too. We are used to a very quiet, relaxed and stress free barn so when someone gets talkative, it gets annoying. The heifers tend to be quieter on the whole, but even some of them will start announcing their heats at 10 months. âShut up already! Youâre not old enough yet!â LoL
I wonder if theyâre like that because we selected them to have more obvious heat cycles? AI has been used in Holsteins for so long nowâŠ
I was a calf feeder at a dairy in college, but my girls were far too young for those worries. 
I think selected may be too strong a word (Holsteins struggle a bit with fertility overall) but it might be a trait that was carried forward when selecting for other traits like production, udder longevity, etc.
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