I do believe that cattle can express emotions. I have seen occasional cows that have a dislike for each other, yet seem to get along with all the other cows just fine. I have also seen cattle that have a very obvious " connection". I do believe they can hold grudges with people who are associated with an unpleasant event. I also believe they can form a very strong bond with someone they associate with good events.
Two years ago, I had two ET calves born 4 days apart.... a bull calf and a heifer calf. They were from the same flush, and they were totally identical in color and the only real difference that was visible was their sex. These two calves were always together. Prior to being turned out on grass in the spring, They would be laying together in the calf shelter. When they went to pasture, I never saw them more than a few feet apart, and oftentimes they would be together, and the rest of the herd would be almost a half mile away at the other end of the pasture. Their recip mothers had embryos put back in them, but this time from different flushes so they were seperated at different times during the summer. Both calves would bawl and look for the other calf, and when they were reunited, they immediately went to each other... and they again stayed together. It was most obvious that they had some sort of connection. In the fall, the bull calf was weaned a few weeks before the heifer calf, as he was going to our bull test with all the other bulls. Almost 3 weeks later, the heifer calf was weaned and this group of calves was put into a pen beside the bull calves. Within minutes, the bull calf and his sister, were standing at the fence and they would stay there for hours on end. I oftentimes saw one of them with it's head through the fence and licking the face of the other. It was as if they were soul mates. I have seen some cattle that seemed to have a connection with each other before, but this was one of the strongest I have ever seen. I find it interesting that they were full sibs from the same flush.
The second bull we imported from Ireland, IDS Duke of Dublin, had a very unique personality. If I was driving my older truck, and drove into the pasture, he would come to it and wait for me to roll the window down. He would then put his huge head in the window, and lay it in my lap, and just stand there while I scratched his head. For some reason, he would never do this when I was driving my new truck. I oftentimes thought that he did not want to damage the new truck. Sometime between the time that we purchased Duke in Ireland, and when he arrived in Canada, he was foundered, and from time to time he had some sore feet. I used to soak his feet in a plastic feed tub when his feet were hurting, and he got so that he would come to me and lift his foot and hold it in the air when he wanted me to get the epsom salts and warm water. I would go get the feed pan and pour the warm solution in it and he would come over and put his foot in it and stand there. He would then turn his head and rub it on me, as if he was saying thank you for doing this.
I will always remember the day that Saskvalley Pioneer died, and it had a major affect on me. I was in his pen and had just finished bedding it. It was a beautiful spring day and Pioneer was bouncing around the pen, running and bucking and just having fun in general. I watched him for a moment, and then turned and walked back into the barn and started to shut the walk through door that went into his pen. As I was shutting the door I heard a funny sound coming from the pen. I opened the door and Pioneer was coming straight for me, and it was most obvious he was in distress. His mouth was open and he was having trouble breathing. My first thought was that he had something in his wind pipe so I ran back into the barn and cut the end off a garden hose that was hanging there. Pioneer followed me in and was standing beside me. I ran the hose down his throat and he just stood there. I then put it in his nose and put it as far as I could. I then ran to the phone and called my vet. Pioneer followed me down the barn and had his head against me as I talked to the vet. By this time he was very weak and barely standing. He then layed down and I knelt down beside him. He lifted his head and swung it over onto my knees and died there. When he died, I am certain that he was looking directly up at me.
Over the years, I have seen many cattle die, and while death is always a bit tragic, Pioneer's death really affected me. It was as if he knew that he was in trouble and I was his only hope of getting help. Maybe I am reading way too much into this event, but his actions seemed to be very deliberate and almost as if he was trying to communicate with me. When the vet got there, we did a postmortem, and he had died from a massive heart attack. While we never fully figured out what caused this, the vet was fairly certain that it was caused by a blood clot or an encapsuled infection breaking and entering his blood system.
