These cows wearing VR goggles would produce more milk; science has its doubts
Have you ever worn a virtual reality headset? To be honest, I haven’t, but I can have a great laugh watching people who, as you sometimes see in videos, wander around a room feeling their way with one on. I’m not exactly the quickest adopter of technological advances anyway, and I had never even heard of using a VR headset on cows…
And of course, I only find out about it just as its usefulness is being called into question. Yes, people, this is where we are now: scientists are saying they cannot confirm the benefits of a VR headset for cows when it comes to milk production.
What’s the story?
Izzet Kocak, a dairy farmer in Turkey, had two of his cows wear a VR headset for twenty minutes a day for a while and noticed that the milk yield of these two cows had increased considerably. One eye of the cows in question was covered, while the other was shown images of a green meadow. Although he admits he has no scientific evidence, the farmer found the outcome of the experiment he conducted ‘as a hobby’ quite remarkable.
Experts unconvinced
Two German experts, agricultural engineer Benito Weise and Völker Röttgen of the German Research Institute for Cattle Biology, point out that the goggles were made for humans. According to Weise, cows could perceive video as a flickering image and become stressed by it, while Röttgen says it has not been conclusively established that the goggles were the reason the milk production was higher, as the stage of lactation may also play a role.
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- Why you should eat your crisps with Turkish yoghurt from now on
Source: Knack/Belga, image: Getty
