lying cows

at the readers' request (at least the ones i see and eat with on a regular basis), i will not continue my squirmy wormy blog topic.


so for a change, i want to pose the question for all who pay attention to the weather...


they give us milk, they give us leather,
can a dumb old cow predict the weather?



i've always heard (and believed) that you can look at a heard of cows and determine what the weather is going to be. for example, cows love to herd together and spend most days close to each other. if you see a heard of cows that are somewhat spread out, then you know it is going to be a nice day. (when the weather is clear and nice out, the cows feel confident to be apart.) likewise if they are clustering together, you know something is brewing... the closer the cows, the worse the weather is going to be.

when cows are lying down in a field, rain is on its way. this is explained by the fact that the cows sense the moisture in the air and are making sure they have somewhere dry to lie down. we usually look at a field and say "well, looks like 5 % chance of rain today" when only a couple of cows or calves are lying down. sometimes, all but 1 or 2 will be lying... which is like a 95% chance of rain!

i've also heard, not that i know this for sure, but when a cow doesn't produce milk or if the cattle are licking their forefeet, rain is on the way. also when the cows are restless (in the stall or in the field), that is a sign of an atmospheric change... which can mean rain!

so what do you think? can cows predict rain? the next time you see a field with cattle, take a gander at them and see what they're saying.