I know, I know, I'm out to lunch, aren't I? I started playing music while I milked the cow a couple months ago. I'll admit, I'm a music junkie, I listen to music all day long. It's the first thing I do when I get up, is turn on music! So it seemed like a natural progression. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there were more benefits to this.
1) It's said that cows will produce more milk when you play music.
This Farm says that their cows produce upto a pint and a half of milk more when they play classical or love music. So I'm guessing that playing Quiet Riot's C'mon Feel the Noise isn't going to increase their yield, but Elvis' Burning Love will. (Both of those are on the playlist I run through) True Story; our recessional song at our wedding was C'mon Feel the Noise. We're cool like that.
2) I believe that background noise makes them less sensitive to other noises.
No joke, the other day when I was milking, Hamish was in the bumbo 10 feet behind the cow, and 10 feet in front of the cow there was 3 tom turkeys in a pen. Hamish was screaming, and the turkeys thought they were being attacked and everytime he screamed they GOBBLEGOBBLEGOBBLE'd as loud as they could. The cow didn't flinch. It's not uncommon for Mac to come running up to where I milk and say "Hey MOM!". When the cow is used to noise happening all the time, things like that don't bother her. This is my personal experience, but I believe it has merit!
3) You have a beat to milk to.
It's nice to get in a rhythm with your squirt squirt squirt'n, and having a tune to go along to makes it kinda fun. Getting a rhythm going is part of what makes milking medatative for me, because your hands do the work and your brain disconnects from your hands a little bit. Don't ask me to explain that further...you'd have to be a milker to know that one.
4) You can practice your wicked singing voice.
I know, I know, you all want to hear me sing (I'll break windows...) but unfortunately my only audience is my family and the cow. She gets my best efforts too. They liked to be talked to but I don't always know what to say. Which is quite a feat if you know me personally. So instead I sing 🙂
So there you go, 4 reasons, why I think playing music will help you and your cow. Maybe it'll help your goat too!