Are domesticated farm cows and bulls dangerous?
You can’t really pet cows, even the domesticated ones, unless they know you. They usually move away from strangers, but can be curious, and if you get surrounded it can be frightening. Never get between a cow and her calf, that can be dangerous and people have been attacked. Bulls should always be treated with caution, and you shouldn’t go into a field with one. Some are very placid, but others will charge you, particularly if you have a dog with you. In that case, let the dog run and the bull will chase that, and you can get away. (The dog will usually be ok). As farming gets more mechanised, even farmers are not often on particularly close terms with their cows, and there have been tragedies.
My uncle is a rancher and bulls are extremely dangerous. Cows not so much it just depends on the cows and how much they are around humans. If they are range fed cattle stay far far far way because being that it is spring they probably have calves around and they will protect them like you wouldn’t believe. And like I said bulls just never go towards them.
Cows are generally quite tame and most time the injuries they cause on a farm are due to the fact that they are such large animals with prodigious strength. Cows generally don’t charge unless they are protecting their calves, but bulls can be very territorial and may chase you away. Usually, if you stay back a good distance, you should generally be fine. More than likely what happened is that the you were in a field of heifers/bullocks, young cows who thought you were bringing feed to them and they rushed over to you to get some. It happened before to a friend of mine from the city, when we were walking in a field and he freaked out, panicked and bolted away. The bullocks chased him and he got even more scared. It was hilarious to see him in such a state over nothing! By the way, cows are not pets, and going up to pet one is not a good idea and they can be easily spooked and as I said earlier, are so strong that they could accidently flatten you in a heartbeat.
