Farmer uses Virtual Reality headsets on cows to enhance milk yield; succeeds!

Team Udayavani, Jan 10, 2022, 9:50 AM IST

A Turkish farmer has devised a novel but ‘ingenious’ method of increasing the quantity of milk produced by his cows.

Izzet Kocak of Aksaray outfitted his cattle with Virtual Reality goggles to give them a taste of the outside world. He went ahead with the plan after noticing how the cold weather was affecting his cows.

According to research, cows are happy when they are exposed to nice sights and noises, and they produce more milk as a result. Kocak employed the virtual reality spectacles to make his cattle believe they were in verdant fields with brilliant sunlight.

“They are watching a green pasture and it gives them an emotional boost. They are less stressed,” the farmer told The Sun.

The plan appears to have worked, as the cows’ milk production has reportedly grown from 22 to 27 litres per day.

Kocak claimed that before this notion, he used to make his animals happy by playing classical music for them. He is so pleased with the VR goggles that he intends to purchase ten more.

The headsets are unique in that they were designed in collaboration with veterinarians and tested on a farm in Moscow before being used on Kocak’s cattle. At the Krasnogorsk farm outside Moscow, several farmers collaborated with veterinarians, advisors, and developers to construct the headsets.

The hardware is a standard human VR headset that has been moulded to the shape of a cow’s head. After that, scientists altered the software’s colour palette to make the VR headset better suited to a cow’s vision.

Because cows cannot see red or green, the colours had to be adjusted.

Farm cows were happier and produced more milk in a nice setting, according to the findings of this study.