Located 50 miles south of Atlanta, Berns and his wife christened their new venture Talking Dogs Farm, named for Berns’s decade-long research with dogs, which resulted in the 2013 New York Times bestselling book, How Dogs Love Us.
Originally, he hadn’t planned on raising a herd of cattle. Or falling in love with their intelligence and personalities.
Berns’s experience with the farm and his cattle is chronicled in his new book, Cowpuppy: An Unexpected Friendship and a Scientist's Journey into the Secret World of Cows. In a recent What We’re Reading interview he explained that the decision to buy a farm was, in part, to “indulge my Green Acres fantasy and head to the country and try my hand at regenerative agriculture.”
Shortly after purchasing the farm Berns had an important decision to make: mow the large pastures with a tractor, buy goats or sheep to tend to it, or do nothing. He explained, “What I quickly discovered was when you find yourself lucky enough to have enough land, the primary goal initially is just how do you manage this land? If you do nothing, then nature starts taking it back very, very quickly.”
Berns initially purchased two small cows, but that’s not all he got. “The person dropped them off and informed me, ‘Hey, you're going to have a surprise pretty soon.’ So they were pregnant… We're in the thick of it real fast,” said Berns.
The original cows were named Ricky Bobby, Lucy, and Ethel, and their initial calves were named BB and Princess Xena, followed by Cricket, Luna, Walker, and Texas Ranger. Berns warned that cattle are very proficient at breeding. He said, “You leave a bull with females--nature takes its course.” They now have 10 total cows from the original 3.
As a neuroscientist and having recently done research on how dogs think, Berns was naturally curious about cow behavior. He observed and interacted with his cows, noting their many similarities to dogs.
Berns explained, “They are affectionate, and they like to have their neck scratched or they eventually rolled over for belly rubs. None of it was dependent on me feeding them because they live on a pasture--they're surrounded by food. So it's purely for that affection and social bonding, and that's really touching. And that's probably the main reason I wrote this book.”
Berns’s observations also revealed that cows are much smarter than most of us give them credit for. He noted, “You don't appreciate it unless you get close to them because most people's impression of them is from the side of the road. You just see them out there on the landscape, like they're not really doing much of anything. But they have fantastic memories. They can recognize people. They can recognize other cows that they know. And if I move one thing in the pasture, they notice it and they will investigate it.”
"They are affectionate, and they like to have their neck scratched or they eventually rolled over for belly rubs."Writer and neuroscientist Gregory Berns on how cows interact with humans.
Berns’s previous research with dogs prepared him for trying to train cows using positive reinforcement. But it works a bit differently with cattle. With dogs, training is usually done with food as incentive. But cattle live in pastures where they are surrounded by food. Berns said, “They do like sweets and so I can give them things like sweet feed or what we call “cattle cubes” as rewards. And that's how I started. I actually trained them to come to a dog whistle. And then paired that with a treat. So they learned that and then some of them learned their name…the principles are basically the same.”
Cows are having their moment--a simple search on social media revealed no shortage of videos of people keeping cows as pets. Berns noted, “A lot of the ones that have a lot of views are these miniature cows, especially miniature Scottish Highlands, which are these big, fluffy creatures. Some people call them Ewoks because they look like those from Star Wars.” Berns’s own cows are miniature zebus, an Asian variety.
While miniature cows may be adorable, smart, and loving, they are still cows. “Keeping a pet cow is not for many people,” Berns warns. “Even the smallest of them still properly weigh 150 lbs., so they're larger than pretty much any dog. They eat grass, so keeping them indoors is difficult and probably not in their best interest. You have to have outside space. And they really are very social--they like to be with other cows. They can bond to people and other animals too, but they do need a herd of some type. So that can't be your only one.”
Berns has owned Talking Dogs Farm for about 4 years now. He admitted that learning to run a farm was among the things in his life that had the steepest learning curve along with an immense amount of knowledge needed–right up there with his experience attending medical school and training to be a physician. At 4 years in, though, he has “no regrets, whatsoever.”
More about Gregory Berns's new book, Cowpuppy.
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