My first thought was they were watching two of their more adept friends play hacky-sack, but then I decided that was probably silly.
So, maybe something less outlandish, like Twister.
My first thought. Now the song’s in my head.
Could be worse, a lot worse. 
They tend to stand facing tail into the wind. It keeps the breeze off their face.
In days of yore pilots were taught to use this factoid to determine wind direction before landing their barnstormer in a pasture.
I suspect you live in a place where the wind blows from the North. Or South; I couldn’t figure out which end of the cow you meant was which when you said they’re “standing north to south”.
I doubt the breeze bothers them. Most grazing animals do this, and it is to make it harder for predators to sneak up on them. Any predator has to either approach from upwind and risk being smelled, or approach from downwind and risk being seen.
If the breeze doesn’t bother them, why do cattle drift with the wind in severe weather conditions? And why don’t horses follow the same pattern?
Growing up in Kentucky I was taught that when cows are huddled near each other for seemingly no reason it meant rain was a-comin’.
The cows know …
Funny. I always herd the opposite.
I guess we’re both right. Rain is always a-comin’. If it doesn’t come today, the cows were thinking about tomorrow or the next day.
LSLGuy, I was doing some checking on the tail in the wind thing and actually found this, saying what I said, if you’re interested in more info: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=FB9B3CC3-E299-DCDD-838FD534037D00CB
Doesn’t quite fit the OP, but we used to fire off model rockets in a cow-field, and, moo! They came a-runnin’! They REALLY wanted to know what it was that made that whooshing noise! (No, this is not a “whoosh” post.) We called it “The Greater Spell of Cow Summoning.”
Trinopus