BrainStuff Classics: Do Happy Cows Really Make Better Milk?

OK, 'happy' is a stretch, but researchers are looking into how cows given positive interactions (like back scritches) grow and produce milk versus less-content cows. Learn more in this classic episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, Luring vogel Bomb here with another classic episode
from our archives. We all do better work when we're
less stressed out and better taking care of And if
this applies to humans, does it apply to other animals
like say, cows? Today's question is do cows given more

(00:25):
positive interactions grow better and produce better milk? Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren vogel Bomb here, Let me take you to a farm.
They're nineteen whole stein calves push their noses over waste
high fences around individual pens. They're milling about in a
red barn the width of a soccer field. It's dinner time.

(00:46):
They're hungry, and they've just spotted their favorite person, a
farmer pulling a green wagon loaded with bottles of warm milk.
He lifts the bottles and feeds each in turn, coaxing
shy calves and hedging strong ones as their tails whip
and bellies full. The farmer rubs their necks and backs affectionately,
scratching behind an ear too. A stereo plays classical music

(01:06):
in the background, though it's mellow tunes are temporarily eclipsed
by the wreckless of the meal in its place. The
farmer offers a soothing monologue that settles over the calves
black and white coats. The farmer, Dean Patterson, tells us,
when you feed a calf a bottle of milk, and
when you rub him on his necker, on his back
and makes him feel so much better. He'll load the
empty bottles back onto his wagon and return them to

(01:28):
the milking parlor, which is housed in another barn. There
he'll wash the bottles and leave them prepped for the
evening feeding, but will continue to check on the calves
throughout the day. Patterson, a seventy eight year old fourth
generation farmer, is building relationships with these calves in the
same way he's done for a lifetime. At Patterson Family Farms.
As at most conventional dairies, calves are separated from their

(01:49):
mothers within a day or two of birth, then housed
individually and in age related groups, where they rely on
people for sustenance and affection. This connection between calf and
caretaker has been at the center of a research project
by the Institute of Animal Husbandry and Animal Welfare at
vetmad Uni, Vienna, a university of veterinary medicine in Austria.
Stephanie Lerzel and her colleagues studied a hundred and four

(02:12):
Holstein Friesian calves at a commercial dairy farm in Germany
from birth to day fourteen. They struked the next of
half of the calves for three minutes a day and
did not pet the other half of the group. By
day ninety, the calves who had experienced neck rubs weighed
more than the control group by a seemingly small but
completely significant three percent. This points to the positive influence

(02:32):
of gentle human interaction on animal weight gain. Researchers also
observed the quality of relationships between calves and caretakers through
an avoidance distance test. The test, which measures the distance
at which a calf will avoid a person who approaches
it head on, revealed these stroked calves had a lower
avoidance distance than the calves in the control group. In short,

(02:53):
the calves who had been given special attention early on
in their lives were less fearful and more welcoming when
approached by people. While these results may seem elementary to
people who have worked with animals, studying the emotional impact
of humans on animals in commercial production is an emerging
field that could have a far reaching impact on the
animal's environments. Previous studies have shown that when heffer's gain

(03:15):
weight more quickly, they go on to produce more milk.
For the calves. In the vetmad Uni Vienna study, their
three percent weight gain could translate into fifty ms. That's
a hundred and ten pounds more milk per cow per year,
says lerzel And. In two thousand one, a pair of
psychologists at England's University of Leicester demonstrated that playing soothing
music to dairy cows increased their milk production. Strategies like

(03:38):
this aren't new to the Patterson Dairy, where classical music
is played for cows and calves around the clock, says
Diana Lanier, who earned a bachelor's degree in animal science
production management before returning to Patterson family Farms to work
alongside her grandfather, Dean Patterson, and her father and brother.
Lanier said, there are a lot of things you can
do to make cows more comfortable and show them you
care for them. In turn, they will really better produce

(04:01):
more milk and to give higher quality milk. The more
you care for them, the more you get out of
that relationship. Today's episode is based on the article study
How's Grow Bigger, Give More Milk after early positive human
interaction on how stuff works dot Com Written by Laurie L. D.

(04:22):
Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership
with how stuff works dot Com, and it is produced
by Tyler Clay. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit
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