According to Modern Farmer, a study from University of Leicester in England blew minds back in 2001 when it was discovered that playing slow music to cows at a large dairy farm increased production of milk by 3 percent, as opposed to playing some rocking tunes, which did nothing to production.
The article goes on to state that such a percentage increase would be a huge deal for massive dairy farms, and mean lots of moolah for those with large amounts of dairy cows.
And then, after this study occurred? Nothing. The research on music and bovines ceased in entirety, even with such lucrative test results from the first study. But according to Modern Farmer, that may be because dairy farmers knew about the correlation between calming tunes and milk production long before science stepped in.
"In terms of music, in my 30 years working with dairy cows, I have found that music can be beneficial to the well-being of the cows, but it must be consistent and calming," says Juan Velez, executive VP of Aurora Organic Farms, from Colorado. "If the music volume is kept constant and the style of music is consistent, and everything else in that parlor is well managed and maintained, music can have a positive effect on milk let down."
So with this knowledge, the British Columbia Dairy Association held a contest to see which group could produce the most milk with the best music, in their "Music Makes More Milk" contest. The winner, as judged by a group of 5 cows, was "A Moo Down Milk Lane". The song proved to increase production, but also was simply part of a one off project to help build a good image for dairy and dairy products.
You can check out the winner below.
Check it out on Youtube.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAe2QjkGVxA
