One way to lighten your spirits is to give a Concert For Cows. I hadn’t planned it, but there were so many black cows on the way to Maple Grove Campground, I stopped to play some music for them….a CD by Will Tuttle. I did it once in Big Sur some years ago…stopped by the side of the road to say hi to the cows and noticed their interest in the music on my CD player, so I turned it up and soon had a group of 20+ cows coming by to listen.
Today I tried it again. Would Utah cows respond to music like California cows? I stopped at one of the boondock sites on the way to Maple Grove. Only one cow was close at that time.
One cow.
It wasn’t long before a few more came by to gather near some trees and listen. Notice they aren’t eating for the most part, as cows usually are. Just listening.
More cows
Well, after 15 minutes of beautiful piano music, there were at least 15 cows gathered at the concert. You can’t see them all here because some are behind the trees. Some are on the other side of the road.
At least 15 cows here, some behind the tree and some on the other side of the road, still on their way.
The rest of the pictures are of Maple Grove Campground…another spirit lifting encounter. WOW!
JOY
Joy in Ivie Creek
I’m limiting my photos because I can’t get the free wifi to work here so I’m using mine and pictures eat it up fast.
**Note from yesterday. I was able to remove all the marks from the side of WS, made by the ramp sliding along it!! Big YAY there. I used the polish I usually use on WS and a lot of elbow grease and she’s lookin’ good. 🙂
Wandering Spirit 
Ahh, lovely! Love the music loving cows and the blissful doggie soak, especially.
Hi Marcia,
She soaks every chance she gets. It seems like the colder it is, the more she likes it!
The cows….I know. They are so sweet, how they just stand and listen. If I stop the music, they begin to munch. Start the music, and they stop and pay polite attention!
I’m going to learn to play the mountain dulcimer this winter and I can’t wait to try it out on the bovine persuasion 🙂
Oh that’s wonderful Marcia! What a great project to learn to play it! And yes, you will have a guaranteed audience of gentle beings. 😀
Fantastic Micky! I just love cows!!
Hi Deb,good to see you here! I love ’em too!
Dairy cows produce more milk when listening to REM’s ‘Everybody Hurts’ or Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral Symphony’ than when subjected to Wonderstuff’s ‘Size of a Cow’ or the Beatles’ ‘Back In The USSR’ a new study by music research specialists at the University of Leicester has found.
The 1,000 strong herds of Holstein Friesian cattle preferred listening to no music at all than being exposed to Mud’s ‘Tigerfeet’ or Bananarama’s ‘Venus’, the psychologists discovered.
Their milk yield rose by 0.73 litres per cow per day when they were exposed to slow music rather than fast music. The results revealed a three per cent increase in output when slow rather than fast music was played.
Scientists Adrian North and Liam MacKenzie from the Music Research Group at the University of Leicester School of Psychology exposed cattle to fast, slow and no music at all over a nine-week period.
The trials, at LCAH Dairies in Lincolnshire and Bishop Burton Agricultural College in Humberside, involved playing music to the cows for 12 hours a day, from 5am to 5pm.
Dr North said: These results are statistically significant they reveal that milk yields could be increased by 3% simply by playing certain types of music to the cows.
I wish they would just be able to produce milk for their calves. Then they would produce the perfect amount, like human mothers do. Music or no.
The music I was playing was beautiful piano compositions by Will Tuttle. Play that stuff and everything is more beautiful somehow.
So did you play them Tuttle’s ‘Cowsong’ from his Animalsongs album? That would have been way too fitting!!!
LOVED the pic of Joy and trees!!!
Gosh Marsha, I didn’t even think of playing Cow Song for them, and I had the Animal Songs CD right there. Maybe I need to go back! 😃
Didn’t know you were aware of Will Tuttle’s music!