HOPKINTON — Commuters experienced a brief bovine backup on Route 95 South yesterday morning as several Holsteins wandered onto the highway.

Troopers James Pardington and Stephen Vanner used air horns and old-fashioned shooing to urge the cows from the roadway around 8 a.m. The cows strayed onto the interstate near Exit 2 through a hole in a fence at Brook-Knoll Farm, state police reports show.

Traffic was stopped for about two minutes to prevent cars from colliding with the errant cattle, said Sgt. Nicholas Tella.

“If a vehicle hits them, it could cause a serious, serious accident,” Tella said.

After some corralling, the cows turned and moved into the woods.

“They move at their own pace,” Tella said.

The state police contacted the owners of the farm, who explained that the cows had escaped through a 100-foot gap in the fence. And it’s not the first time they’ve broken free.

“Last year, they were out every day,” said Dorothy Reynolds, co-owner of the farm.

The Reynolds family, which owns Brook-Knoll Farm, says the state Department of Transportation has been responsible for maintaining the fence that runs along the roadway since it took the land by eminent domain to build the highway. Route 95 slices through the farm’s rock-studded meadows.

The state installed a portion of the fence last fall, but left about 100 feet unfinished, Reynolds said. The family has been trying to keep the cows away from that area.

DOT records show that state workers erected 2,500 feet of fencing, plus another 100 feet, on Oct. 13, said Heidi Cote, DOT spokeswoman.

“If there was a hole, they didn’t make us aware of it,” she said.

The state will look into the complaint, she said.

“We don’t want anything to hurt motorists or the animals,” she said. “We will certainly investigate.”

kmulvane@projo.com