A night-time moo-mystery has got Comet country in a (beef) stew.

Last week we reported on the bizarre bovine bawling that kept residents in Stevenage and Walkern awake, and called on readers to tell us if they knew what was going on.

Well it seems many of you herd the noise and have got in touch to give us your ideas.

The suitably named Belinda Millman of Wedgewood Way tilted at windmills.

“Just read your story and my colleague at work believes he knows the answer. If the wind is blowing right it is the windmills that generate electricity – they can sound like a herd of cows,” she said.

Holly of Stevenage emailed to say she was just pleased she wasn’t going grazey.

“I live near Ridlins running track and have also heard these mysterious cows on a couple of occasions. I thought I was going mad. However my dad said he had heard them, and now there’s an article, phew!”

A Shephall resident may be going a bit doo-lally.

“I heard the cows at 5am while I was taking out the bins. I had to stop and look around as I thought I was partly dreaming. But yep, loud mooing it was. I told my cousin, she thought I was extra crazy - especially since I told her of the three ducks on my doorstep at seven in the morning, and the two hedgehogs dancing on the front pathway one night. We’re from London…lol”

Craig Jackson, also of Shephall, said his missus heard the phantom cows.

“I thought to myself that maybe she was half asleep or just starting to go crazy knowing that the closest cow patch was quite far away, until I was walking to the Sainsbury’s garage around 10.30pm when I started to hear them myself, which felt rather strange.”

Martin Bosowitz said it wasn’t cows at all.

“Deer make a mooing noise and there are plenty of them around the Walkern area and fields near Stevenage,” he said.

The whole thing brought back some frightening memories from the 1980s for Mark Draper.

“On several occasions during the nights I heard what I can only describe as the most eeriest mooing I’m ever likely to hear.

“One evening I was walking back from my cousin’s house in Sunnyside Road, Hitchin. It was pretty late, probably around midnight and I heard these noises again. I stopped to look where the noise was coming from and I saw a dark figure that looked like a large horse kind of shape. I heard the noise again and it came from where the figure was. With this I ran back to my parent’s house and I remember getting in and closing the door and having to sit down as I was shaking and my heart was going 10 to the dozen.”

Terry Reed, Laura Johnstone and Heather Alcantara all pointed to Brookfield Farm at Aston End.

Laura, who lives opposite the farm, said: “The cows were unbelievably noisy and the neighbourhood were talking about it. I have been told they do it either when they need milking or if their babies are taken from them.”

But farmer Tim Waygood, of Chuch Farm in Ardeley, blamed his red poll cattle.

“Someone closed a gate between two fields and one lot of cows got split up and so they mooed until we went and opened the gate. Because the wind blew towards Walkern we did not hear them!”