you should hear the old bull in the field on the corner when he gets going..is it the mating season d'you know? 
What for? Bulls, or just in general ;-)
I gather that most cows don't even see a bull these days. Just the man from the Ministry of AG (or whatever they call it these days) with a pair of rubber gloves and a plastic bag of frozen 'bull juice'. Could explain 'Mad Cow Disease', couldn't it?
Country living... When we first moved here, about 45 years ago, the road outside was just a gravel track and there was woodland - with bluebells and all the other stuff we used to take for granted - just the other side of the track. Then they built a row of old folks bungalows. It was a typical 60s experiment in social engineering, sticking old folks opposite families with kids. All the houses had a little alcove built on for storing bicycles. Gradually the estate grew around us.
We could hear owls hooting at night, and sometimes the cows coughing in the fields beyond the woodland. Very distinctive, a cow's cough. Gamekeepers and poachers learn to cough so it sounds like a cow, if they have to ;-)
About a mile away down the hill and beyond the river there was the proper town with several large factories, and at 6am you could hear the rumble as machinery started en-masse. But it wasn't as obtrusive as the motorway noise. There were still a lot of farms around and a lot of open ground. All gradually eaten up by housing and factories.
I've been away and come back a few times, and after being down in Cornwall the first few weeks back with the motorway noise were a nightmare.
A few years back we went for a short break at a place in Cornwall called Lansallos, and, not only was it quiet enough to hear a fox walking past in the night, there was virtually no light pollution from street lamps. I could walk down to the beach at night through the fields by starlight. It's only in the wild places that you realise just how much light stars can provide, even without a moon. Just sit outside for a while to let your eyes adjust and away you go. Magic. Of course, on a cloudy night it was as black as the inside of a bag ;-)
Damn, I need to get back there...
Gyppo