4 ms·

"overturn the idea that livestock are dumb and unworthy of scientific attention." Where's this idea? Most of the farmers I know don't believe this. They know t

"overturn the idea that livestock are dumb and unworthy of scientific attention." Where's this idea? Most of the farmers I know don't believe this. They know their animals have some level of intelligence. There is a huge amount of scientific attention given to livestock - from genetics and breeding, to disease, management practices, etc. Maybe this is just what people who have never been around livestock believe?

worldvoyageur 3y ago
Fully agree. I grew up on a farm. The animals included cows, sheep, goats, chickens and donkeys. You quickly learned their distinct personalities. You could tell when they were stressed and when they were content. It sure felt a lot better when they were content and you went out of your way to achieve that, both short term in what you did that day and longer term as you structured the farm to better fit what the animals wanted. The animals learned about the humans as well. For instance, walking to the back edge of the farm in the fall to fix fencing, the cows would change their routine to follow - especially the part were you might route through the field full of apple trees. Sure enough, you'd see that the cows had eaten all the apples they could reach but there were vast quantities of ripe apples higher up. So you climbed the tree and used your legs to shake branches, causing bushels of apples to thunder down. The cows that had followed would call loudly to summon their herd mates, who would come at the run. If the sheep saw me on the same trip, I'd be ignored...unless I was carrying a bucket, which meant it probably had oats, at which point I'd have a herd of sheep converging on my position.
stubish 3y ago
I thought it well known that pigs were considered as smart as dogs. Pigs might be a special case, as they are kept as pets much as a dog would be in a few countries.

worldvoyageur 3y ago

Fully agree. I grew up on a farm. The animals included cows, sheep, goats, chickens and donkeys. You quickly learned their distinct personalities. You could tell when they were stressed and when they were content. It sure felt a lot better when they were content and you went out of your way to achieve that, both short term in what you did that day and longer term as you structured the farm to better fit what the animals wanted. The animals learned about the humans as well. For instance, walking to the back edge of the farm in the fall to fix fencing, the cows would change their routine to follow - especially the part were you might route through the field full of apple trees. Sure enough, you'd see that the cows had eaten all the apples they could reach but there were vast quantities of ripe apples higher up. So you climbed the tree and used your legs to shake branches, causing bushels of apples to thunder down. The cows that had followed would call loudly to summon their herd mates, who would come at the run. If the sheep saw me on the same trip, I'd be ignored...unless I was carrying a bucket, which meant it probably had oats, at which point I'd have a herd of sheep converging on my position.

stubish 3y ago

I thought it well known that pigs were considered as smart as dogs. Pigs might be a special case, as they are kept as pets much as a dog would be in a few countries.