Drs Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson of Newcastle University, UK, have recently won Harvard’s annual Ig Nobel Prize for showing that cows who have names give more milk than cows that are nameless.
They showed that the way human’s behave with animals influences the quality of the human-animal relationship. Many scientific studies have demonstrated that cattle’s fear-response to humans affects their productivity, behavior, and welfare. In the scientific literature it is believed that fear of humans is the predominant relationship on dairy farms.
The researchers gathered subjective information from 516 stock managers on how their relationship affected their cows. They found that only 21% of farmers believed that dairy cattle were fearful of humans, although they accepted that humans can have an impact on their cattle’s temperament.
Ninety percent of respondents thought cows had feelings, and 78% thought cows were intelligent. The research found that cows gave 258 litres higher on farms where the farmer/stock manager thought it important to know every individual animal, and where cows were called by name.