Farmers warned over newly calved cows

Farmers have been warned over the dangers involved when working with newly calved cows as they may be more prone to aggressive behaviour.

The spring calving period has just started but already there are reports of people injured by cows with new born young and experts from Scotland’s Rural College have warned anyone working with stock to take care.

According to St Boswells based beef specialist, Dr Basil Lowman, the vast majority of attacks on stockspeople are by cows which they have often regarded as docile.

Dr Lowmen recommends that farmers always have two people present to deal with newly calved cows.

And the SRUC has urged every person dealing with calving cows to spend some time looking at where cows calve and consider how easy it would be to protect themselves or escape from the pen should that be necessary.

They have also released the following general advice:

• Never go in with a cow if she is showing aggressive behaviour (such as holding her head low to the ground and shaking it from side to side with her ears back, or continuously staring at you and shaking her head)

• If a calf needs assistance to breathe etc and the cow has been restrained to calve her, do not release her until the calf has recovered and been moved back to the pen.

• Never move a newborn calf alone unless the cow is safely penned off.

• Never stand between a cow and her newborn calf.

• If you are attacked, try and crawl/roll away from the cow towards safety eg under a gate, trailer etc to present as small and non threatening a target as possible.

• If you are called to help a colleague do not go into the pen immediately as you will be putting yourself at risk too. Wait until there are 2 of you present. If you are alone ring for extra help.