Woody Packard

Words + Pictures

Cows


I have never lived in a place where livestock freely roam the city streets, so it took a little while to adjust to the fact that at any time of the day or night, practically anywhere you go, it is possible to run into cattle who want to share the sidewalk or road or path with you. Once the initial novelty of it passed, a few other insights have set in, some that have broken previous preconceptions about these animals.

The first piece of "common knowledge" to go was the notion that cows will wander forever if someone doesn't go out and bring them back, expressed in our idiom till the cows come home. Here, the cows come home when it starts to get dark, winding their way from wherever they had found food back to their own khasha, or yard. They do this every day, without the help of herders or cowboys or dogs, the instructions clear in their heads as they move through traffic in the streets or gatherings of people in the square. Although they are big and slow, they are smart in a way I never imagined, though, since there are no street signs here, I won't yet make the claim that they can read.

They are, however, very resourceful. A look at the landscape here at this time of year will tell you that grazing on grass is a tough way to make a living. From a cow's point of view, there are more attractive options, most of these being some form of creative scavenging, or more bluntly, nosing around through garbage for the leftovers that people throw away. A hungry cow is a force that is not to be taken lightly. We have watched the continuing saga outside our apartment's entrance as one piece of technology after another has bent, literally, to the cows who invade the garbage pile. To keep them from spreading the garbage around, we have watched the construction of a garbage tipple (vastly undersized for the job,) and now a fence, whose gate is dismantled by the brute force of hungry cows only hours after each repair.

Two weeks ago, in a conversation about landscaping options for the campus, I mentioned that in addition to the harsh climate conditions, the greater challenge is the hungry cows. No problem I was told. There is a new law, passed by the city council. It outlaws cows roaming the streets. If a cow is caught, a ticket will be issued. (I haven't yet seen any evidence of how this is working out.)

Living with cows also presents some creative opportunities for recycling. Although we haven't figured out what to do about a compost pile here, we do have a cow bag, which Judy takes with her when full, to feed to the first cow she sees. They like cabbage, turnips, and potatoes, but are not so fond of tomatoes or onions.

Close Story—Back to Pictures

Cows

Click below to page through enlarged images or read the story.

2121002-007
Foot Traffic

2121105-025
Cattle Grazing Option

2121002-013
Cattle Grazing

2130126-527
Cattle Grazing Option

2130216-001
Cattle Grazing Option

2121002-035
One Horn, Milk Producer

2121003-014
Cow at Ochir

2121006-130
Heading Home

2121010-011
Cattle Grazing, Downtown

2121010-029
Wrong College

2121019-035
Cattle Grazing, Dried Leaves

2121113-108
Cross Walk, Goat Red

2121024-078
Passage

2121031-053
Look Alikes

2121103-015
Old Hotel

2121114-189
Locked Out

2121201-044
Freckles

2121202-012
Cow Blanket

2121202-015
Along the Wall

2121223-017
Bookends

2121229-035
Meat and Potatoes

2130104-027
Homeward

2121022-016
Endangered Species

2130320-086
Suspects

2130214-227
Cows, Government Building

2130322-140
Open Door, Just Checking

2130317-009
Reformed Cow

2130317-010
Hoping for More