Classical music increases cows’ milk yield, study finds

10 October 2019, 15:24 | Updated: 10 October 2019, 15:45

Cows produce more milk when they listen to classical music, according to a farmer in Turkey.

Classical music therapy increases the milk yield of cows by five per cent, a breeder has found.

Mehmet Akgül, a cattle breeder from the district of Yazıhan, started the experiment on his ranch in Turkey’s eastern Malatya province.

He played out music for his stock on speakers, cranking them up at specific times in order to increase milk yield.

“If this music provides relaxation on humans, so I thought that why wouldn’t it work on animals?” Akgül told Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.

“I set up a music system and observed the increase in the milk yield. Whatever kind of feed you give them, the important thing is to relieve the stress from the animal.

“This way I saw there is a significant increase in the yield and also the health problems of animals have decreased.”

“I am thinking about doing a better and a larger scale to increase this percentage more,” Akgül continued. “Dairy producers and other animal breeders should try this as well. Do not use the high quality of feeds and try to increase the milk yield. There is no cost in the experiment. Just try the classical music or Turkish art music, you won’t lose anything.”

Speaking to the Turkish paper, veterinary physician Mehmet Erkan Doğan said the farm is also planning to give the animals massages with techniques from Far East countries.

Emphasising how important animal welfare is in farm conditions, he said: “Animals need to be healthy and peaceful in psychological and physical terms. In this situation, we came up with the idea of applying classical music therapy to animals. When we look at the results, we can see there is an increase in the milk yield and decrease in the diseases.

“We will think about doing live music performances and feed animals for prizes.”

For years, studies have looked into the effects of classical music on a cow’s milk production. Back in 2001, researchers from the University of Leicester published their ‘Moosic Study’, which found that dairy cows produce more milk when listening to relaxing classical tunes.

In July this year, a video of an Italian vet singing opera to cows went viral. Alfonso Camass, now known as the singing vet, believed his singing would calm the animals down.