Glow-in-the-dark cows proposed to protect herds from motorists

'It sounds completely crazy and it probably is - you’ve got to paint 500 cattle on both sides'

Reflective collars weren’t very effective in protecting cows (BBC)

If, late at night, you are driving down a dark country road in Gloucestershire and you spot a strange “alien glow” in the distance, do not panic.

The aliens have not landed. You are not hallucinating. You are just looking at a glow-in-the-dark cow.

The managers of the centuries-old Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons near Stroud are considering daubing reflective paint on the 500 cattle grazing there to make them glow in the beam of approaching headlights.

The motorists, it was suggested, would see not a whole cow, but just an “alien glow” where the paint was, which would persuade them to slow down and avoid hitting the animal.

The Minchinhampton and Rodborough Commons Committee is looking into whether the idea might reduce a death toll which has seen seven cattle killed this summer on the 40mph roads while criss-crossing the 1,000-acre expanse.

The committee got the idea after hearing about a trial that involved putting reflective blue stripes on the ponies of Dartmoor. This trial, which reportedly started earlier this month with encouraging results, had itself been inspired by the glow-in-the-dark reindeers of Lapland.

According to reports from Finland, herders began spraying reflective paint on the fur of hundreds of reindeer last year, and were considering giving them glow-in-the-dark antlers to make them more visible to drivers.

Mark Dawkins, the hayward to the Commons of Minchinhampton and Rodborough, said a decision would be made before the start of the next May-to-October grazing season. He admitted there had been only limited success with previous attempts to improve the visibility of the Aberdeen Angus, Gloucester, Hereford and Blonde d’Aquitaine cattle belonging to 13 different graziers.

This summer they tried reflective collars, after hearing that they worked well on the ponies of the New Forest. The collars proved less effective on Gloucestershire cows, and tended to fall off.

But Mr Dawkins, 65, whose ancient title was originally used to designate the keeper of the village cattle, was sceptical about the idea of resorting to reflective paint.

“The mind boggles,” he said. “It sounds completely crazy and it probably is. You’ve got to paint 500 cattle on both sides.

“They would probably ask me to do it, and I can see more paint getting on the hayward than on the cattle. You’d end up with a luminous hayward.”

Mr Dawkins, from the village of Buterrow, said the commons had existed since at least the Norman Conquest.

“But there’s never been a luminous cow on them before,” he said. “We have got a nice pastoral landscape on the common.

“With rolling land and beautiful cattle. I’m not sure I want to see the cows with paint all over them.”

He also wasn’t sure that all drivers would stop when a cow with an “alien glow” wandered into the road.

“Some people seem to drive with their eyes closed anyway,” he said. “We get people who run into cows in broad daylight, with good visibility.

“I think some people will just say ‘I wonder what that alien glow is?’ and then bang into it.”