What's in a name?

SACRAMENTO, California — Treat her nice, give her a lovely name like Michelle or Hillary...and your cow will reward you with more fresh milk for your family or for the market.  

A study done at the Newcastle University in England says there’s no scientific evidence to such claim. However, it says christening your cow and more affectionate caring could result in increased milk output.

Husbandry experts agree that when cattle for meat production are given a regular body massage and other soothing treatments, they would give more tender and better quality meat.

“A cow that is happy and calm is going to produce more milk. So, if you have cows named after people and those that are working with them understand the cows, they’re going to get more milk out of them,” the recently released study pointed out.

It discovered that a more affectionate treatment of cattle - including giving a milking cow a particular name - can boost milk output by an additional 68 gallons per year. The average cow is said to produce about 2,000 gallons annually.

The reason why cows that are named become more productive is chemical, says Catherine Douglas who made the study as part of her thesis at the university. She noted that if a cow is not given individual attention, the animal may not be comfortable around humans and become stressed.

“This stress releases corticol, a hormone that inhibits milk production,” Douglas pointed out. She said cow-friendly farmers familiarize their cows with human contact from an early age.

Many farmers give names to their cows for different reasons - some to make the animals feel special. In some farms, piped-in classical music is played continuously inside the barns to keep cows happy during milking time.

Aside from inreased dairy production, Douglas contends that named cows probably would have better relationships with the farmers tending them, leading to fewer injuries during milking time

“I should know. I was kicked hard once when a cow near me probably have wrongly suspected I wasn’t affectionate enough,” she said.