OLD MacDonald should have had a disc jockey on his farm. Cows produce more
milk when they hear slow tunes by Beethoven and REM. But they hate upbeat hits
by The Beatles.
A music technology company fitted out dairy enclosures with sound equipment,
so that psychologists Adrian North and Liam MacKenzie from the University of
Leicester could serenade a thousand cattle with music for 12 hours a day for
nine weeks. Slow music was defined as having a tempo of less than 100 beats per
minute, while fast music had more than 120 beats per minute.
The Holstein Friesians produced more milk when played music with a slow tempo
than if they listened to no music at all. Fast music only suppressed yields. On
average, each cow produced 0.73 litres more milk per day to tunes such as
Beethoven鈥檚 Pastoral Symphony than they did to The Beatles鈥� speedy Back in the
USSR or The Size of a Cow by The Wonderstuff. Perhaps they were offended by The
Wonderstuff鈥檚 lyrics.
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鈥淚t鈥檚 all about getting the right atmosphere,鈥� says Neil Cutler, who has a
dairy farm near Portsmouth. 鈥淭he less stressed the cows are, the more easily
they let down the milk.鈥� The increases in yield could earn him 拢15 extra
each day for every 100 cows, he says.
鈥淭here鈥檚 something there, but we don鈥檛 know exactly what it is yet,鈥� says
North. According to Phil Hudson from the National Farmers鈥� Union, many milk
parlour operators listen to a radio. But he doesn鈥檛 know if it increases yields,
as they choose their own music. Chickens, however, are known to respond
especially well to Pink Floyd
(快猫短视频, 27 April 1996, p 17).