Please Poop, Mr. Cow!
Although modern science has been able to send a man to the moon, it has not been able to make cows poop on command. An effort to solve this shortcoming is described in a recent issue of Applied Animal Behaviour Science.
The thing is, it would be really nice, for the purpose of general hygiene, if farmers could convince cows to stop pooping wherever they felt like it. So researchers devised a series of tests to see if prompts such as walking through a footbath, or being exposed to blasts of air or water, could stimulate bovine defecation. No such luck. The researchers concluded, "None of our tests reliably stimulated defecation, which seemed to occur most when cows were exposed to novelty."
The thing is, it would be really nice, for the purpose of general hygiene, if farmers could convince cows to stop pooping wherever they felt like it. So researchers devised a series of tests to see if prompts such as walking through a footbath, or being exposed to blasts of air or water, could stimulate bovine defecation. No such luck. The researchers concluded, "None of our tests reliably stimulated defecation, which seemed to occur most when cows were exposed to novelty."
Comments
After all the stuff those researchers tried, the cows just didn't give a shit!
Posted by Miles on 02/17/13 at 05:14 PM
Most people have trouble housetraining a dog! How in the world do they expect to train cows?? Too bad there's nothing more important to be done in this perfect world.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 02/17/13 at 08:12 PM
Correct me if I'm wrong but the data look weird. Why were the cows so much more 'active' early on? What's going on the the 19th (the day no cows would poop)? And I would think that the 20th would be a big day.
Posted by crc on 02/17/13 at 09:39 PM
According to a farmer friend of mine, back in the 50s and 60s, cows waited to poop until they got hooked up to the milking machine in the dairy barn.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 02/18/13 at 12:43 AM
It seems cow patty bingo is safe from being rigged for now.
http://www.winbigatbingo.com/cow.html
http://www.winbigatbingo.com/cow.html
Posted by BMN on 02/18/13 at 04:51 AM
It should be Mrs. Cow.
Posted by Skytt on 02/18/13 at 05:19 AM
Novelty triggers defecation? How anthropomorphic!
Captcha = gives79? That's a new service.
Captcha = gives79? That's a new service.
Posted by Harvey on 02/18/13 at 01:44 PM
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Category: Science | Experiments | Farming | Cows | Excrement