I've always assumed that cows (and sometimes horses) do this to take advantage of each others' swishing tails - to deal with flies. However, I can't recall if this is something they do in the winter, when there aren't any flies, so when I got back home I decided to do a little search to see if there was anything on the internet about cows being lined up in a row.
I was surprised to find a large number of references on this topic, most citing a study conducted by some researchers who used images from Google Earth satellite. The study, based on observing 8,510 cows in 308 different locations, concluded that cows will typically face north.
One theory was the north/south orientation results in the sun shining more directly on the cows' sides, perhaps warming up their gut. Not so for my cows. They were all facing east - so my theory is they were trying to avoid having the sun shining on their heads. Does this make them cooler? Or have they read in a magazine that increased sun exposure causes wrinkles?
Or maybe the eastern orientation is religiously based....I believe early in the history of the Catholic church, altars faced east. In Florence, Italy, there is a baptistry building across from the huge Cathedral. The baptistry entrance is on the west side and when you've been baptized, you exit through a door that faces east. I believe other religions have preference for an eastern orientation.
Here's what else I learned about cows:
-cows that are named (and "sweet talked") produce up to 5% more milk/day. Ok, so here's a little trivia -
do you have any idea how much milk a good milk cow can produce in a day? If my recall is accurate, its in excess of 20 gallons/day. So 5% is a healthy amount of extra milk. (wonder if anyone has ever studied something similar with humans)
-most cows don't sweat - their big wet noses act as a cooling system
-a cow's stomach has 4 chambers (rumen, reticulim, omasum, abdomasum). The University has several cows with glass "port holes" inserted into their sides. When they have the Veterinary Medicine open house in the spring, you can see these cows close up - in fact they open up the port holes so you can see right into the stomach. The open house is usually in April and worth taking the kids.
Why am I writing about cows? Well, the sight of those cows all lined up in a row was a Kodak moment for me. But aside from that, I love animals so I'm always interested in learning more about them. Which is why I have a road trip to a large dairy farm in Indiana on my summer "to do" list. Taking Evan and Garrett. They have thousands of dairly cows, 80+ babies born everyday (with a glass enclosed arena so you can watch the deliveries) and a bar coding system for each cow that tracks their exercise, their food intake and their milk production. They recycle all the manure to power the farm. Fair Oaks Farm. There are several YouTube videos about this place.
If you are interested in more details from the study, here are a few exerpts from some of the postings I found when I "Googled" the topic:
From a site called SuperEco, comes this statement written by Karen Murphy, 3/18/09: "Cows don't make handy wristwatches, but they're decent navigators. Lack a GPS? No problem! Cows are great multitaskers: they give milk, add to the compost pile, and naturally orient north-south. You may be interested in how we know this. You can thank your friend Google for this news. That's right, Google (and we don't mean "let us Google that for you"), the people who showed you the carbon and are busy underwater mapping oceans, are now equally busy tracking the standing habits of standing cows". Google Earth.
This article goes on to say that standing under power lines may disorient the cows...so I wonder if that is what was causing the cows in my picture to face east.
From Discovery News (related to Discovery Channel), written by Emily Sohn Feb 2009: "Dairy cows face a lot of pressure. Every day, month after month, a lactating cow is expected to let down her milk under the expectant eyes of a farmer whose bottom line depends on how much it he can squeeze out. Now, new research suggests a gentle way to get more milk out of anxious mama-cow: Stroke her, ask about her day, and call her Elsa, Rose, or Lady Moo. Cows with names produce up to five percent more milk, according to a study published in January in the journal Anthrozoos".
From Live Science written by Jeremy Hsu, August 28, 2008: " Wind and time of day did not offer better explanations for why 8,510 cattle in 308 locations around the world would mostly face north-south. Shadows suggested that many of the images were taken on cloudless, sunny days, so Begall's group also factored in direct ground observations of cattle herds." This was also referencing Google Earth findings.
From Discover Blog written by Ed Yong, March 16, 2009: "Now, the same team (he's referencing the researchers who used Google Earth Satellite - same study all the other sites referenced) - have found that high-voltage power lines, which emit strong magnetic fields of their own, disrupt the orientation of cattle and deer. Near these lines, their neat alignment goes astray and they position themselves at random. This disturbance becomes less and less pronounced as the animals stray further away from the power lines." If I lived anywhere near power lines, this might make me nervous.
Ed continues with "The benefits that cows and deer gain by detecting magnetic fields are just as unclear as the means through which they do it. There are many possibilities. Synchronising the direction of the herd could make it easier to graze efficiently or escape predators effectively. It could help them to navigate as they move to fresh pastures (although deer also align magnetically while they're resting). The most intriguing reason of all, which the group put forward in their last paper, is that magnetic alignment could make some bodily processes function more effectively."
I find it interesting that there are people spending time studying this peculiar activity when we have diseases to cure and many other problems that need to be analyzed and solved. If they do find the real reason cows typically face north (except for those at the U of I), what will they do with that information?
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