I’m sure that we have all heard the old myth that bulls will charge at you if you wear red. Like many other myths about the agriculture industry this is false. Hand in hand with this myth is that Cattle are colour blind. This is also false.
To explain this I’m going to have to get a bit technical. Cattle are Dichromats, this means that their eyes is most sensitive to 2 main spectrums of colour (green/yellow and purple/blue) humans, on the other hand, are trichromats meaning that they can see the entire spectrum.
Cattle are not more sensitive to red than any other colour, but what they are sensitive to is movement. Since cattle are grazers their eyes work so that they can see things coming from a long ways a way. But although they can see it they cannot clearly distinguish what it is. This is why movement will often make them jump even if it is something simple like a tree blowing in the wind.
My family raises bulls and it always amazes my friend when I strike off across a pen of 20 of them without looking back. This is because I know my cattle, for the most part I have seen our bulls every day from the time that they are 7 months old. Even though I know that my bulls are used to people and my family I still take precautions. Even the most nice animal can have its grumpy days or just want to play and bunt you with their head (this is not so fun for me considering they are about 10 times my weight) When walking through a pen of bulls, no matter how tame, it is always good to make slow, deliberate movements and have a quick exit rout in case something goes bad. And you are probably safer to wear your favorite red shirt then to wave something in front of their face.
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| my sister and one of our bulls |
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