You're right about one thing, Bill. I was tempted to doubt you, from the moment I saw the topic title!

Although I grew up on a cattle ranch and remember my parents always talking quietly to milk cows, I don't remember any whistling to the cows. My mother could whistle louder than anyone I ever knew, so I do remember her whistling to call the dogs.

Then again, this was Wyoming, not Italy, and the milk cows were Holsteins, not oxen.

Don't know about whistling but I have personal experience to prove that cows will come if you sing to them. They possibly would have drunk something if there had been a trough of water in the field where I tried this (in the UK by the way, not Italy).

Just a thought.... Horses can get very sick if fed when they are too hot from work. They should be cooled down and rehydrate before being fed. Oxen are probably the same. I think that is the reasoning for the first part of the paragraph. As for the whistling; you can "train" animals to respond to sounds by repetitive conditioning. A friend of mine taught her horse to urinate in a bucket with a whistle command. Of course it requires lucky timing and lots of positive rewards at first, but with enough attention it can be done. Once the conditioning is accomplished, it makes life much easier for everyone. Pavlov's theory used in an unexpected way!

I am pasting the original latin text. But trying to interpert the latin text is a bit beyond my lingustic skills and kowledge!!!

III
Boves cum ab opere disiunxerit, substrictos confricet, manibusque comprimat dorsum, et pellem revellat, nec patiatur corpori adhaerere, quia et genus morbi maxime est armentis noxium. Colla subigat, merumque faucibus, si aestuaverint, infundat. Satis autem est singulis binos sextarios praebere: sed ante ad praesepia boves religari non expedit, quam sudare atque anhelare desierint. Cum deinde tempestive potuerint vesci, non multum nec universum cibum, sed partibus et paulatim praebere convenit. Quem cum absumpserint, ad aquam duci oportet, sibiloque allectari, quo libentius bibant; tum demum reductos largiori pabulo satiari. Hactenus de officio bubulci dixisse abunde est. Sequitur ut tempora quoque subigendi arvi praecipiamus. (De Re Rustica)

Bill

Latin and Greek Texts a casa mia

When I was a kid, there were cows in a field near our house.
We kids wanted to ride horses, but since there were no horses, we would whistle for the cows to come close to the fence.
They always came. Then we put bitless halters on them and road them around the pasture. I have no idea what the cows' motivation for cooperating with us may have been. We didn't offer any special treats.

It's common knowledge in Vermont (and was already when my husband grew up on a farm here)that cows give milk more freely if there's classical music playing in the background. Rock doesn't work. I think Mozart is supposed to be best, but I'll ask if Dominic remembers any preferences .