Like Pavlov's Dog

I remember in Psychology class in college we learned about Pavlov and his dog.  Pavlov began studying his dog's salivation while it ate.  Odd thing to study, I know.  He began to notice that his dog would salivate when he would walk in the room whether he had food or not.  His theory was that dogs salivate naturally, but they could be conditioned to associate food with different things.  For instance, he rang a bell when feeding his dog.  After doing that for a while, he observed that when he would ring the bell, the dog would salivate regardless if he had food or not.  In this way, he determined that dogs could learn responses and be conditioned to do certain things.

I noticed the same thing with our cows.  Now, dogs are way smarter than cows, but cows still associate things with food and learn responses to certain stimuli.  Our cows right now are hungry.  It hasn't rained for a while and the grass is not coming in strong yet.  They moo loudly even after being fed.

I use a rotational grazing system to cycle the cows through several paddocks, always moving them to fresh grass.  These paddocks are separated by electric fencing that I roll up using a reel.  The cows will eat most of the grass down in the paddock and then it is time to move them to the next one.  I roll up the reel that separates them from the fresh grass and they come running!

As I crank the reel to roll up the electric fence, the clicking sound of the ratchet on the reel attracts them as they associate that sound with fresh grass.  They come a running!  I'm sure it starts them salivating, too.