Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hey, brain stuff luring vogel bomb Here. Let me take you to a farm. They're nineteen whole steam calves push their noses over waiste high fences around individual pens. They're milling about in a red barn the width of a soccer field. It's dinner time. They're hungry, and they've just spotted their favorite person, a farmer pulling a green wagon loaded with
bottles of warm milk. He lifts the bottles and feeds each in turn, coaxing shy calves and hedging strong ones. As their tails whip and bellies full. The farmer rubs their necks and backs affectionately, scratching behind an ear too. A stereo plays classical music in the background, though its mellow tunes are temporarily eclipsed by the wreckless of the meal in its place. The farmer offers a soothing monologue
that settles over the calves black and white coats. The farmer, Dean Patterson, tells us, when you feed a calf a bottle of milk, and when you rub him on his necker, on his back and makes him feel so much better, he'll load the empty bottles back onto his wagon and return them to the milking parlor, which is housed in another barn. There, he'll wash the bottles and leave them prepped for the evening feeding, but will continue to check
on the calves throughout the day. Patterson, a seventy eight year old fourth generation farmer, is building relationships with these calves in the same way he's done for a lifetime at Patterson Family Farms. As at most conventional dairies, calves are separated from their mothers within a day or two of birth, then housed individually and in age related groups,
where they rely on people for sustenance and affection. This connection between calf and caretaker has been at the center of a research project by the Institute of Animal Husbandry and Animal Welfare at vetmag Uni, Vienna, a university of veterinary medicine in Austria. Stephanie Lerzel and her colleagues studied a hundred and four Holstein Frisian calves at a commercial
dairy farm in Germany from birth to day fourteen. They stroked the next of half of the calves for three minutes a day and did not pet the other half of the group. By day ninety the calves would experience to neck rubs weighed more than the control group by a seemingly small but completely significant three percent. This points to the positive influence of gentle human interaction on animal weight gain. Researchers also observed the quality of relationships between
calves and caretakers through an avoidance distance test. The test, which measures the distance at which a calf will avoid a person who approaches it head on, revealed these stroked calves had a lower avoidance distance than the calves in the control group. In short, the calves who had been given special attention early on in their lives were less
fearful and more welcoming when approached by people. While these results may seem elementary to people who have worked with animals, studying the emotional impact of humans on animals in commercial production is an emerging field that could have a far reaching impact on the animals environments. Previous studies have shown that when heffer's gain weight more quickly, they go on
to produce more milk. For the calves in the vet mead Uni Vienna study, their three percent weight gain could translate into fifty that's a hundred and ten pounds more milk per cow per year, says Lurzel, and in two thousand one, a pair of psychologists at England's University of Lester demonstrated that playing soothing music to dairy cows increased
their milk production. Strategies like this aren't new to the Patterson Dairy, where classical music is played for cows and calves around the clock, says Diana Lanier, who earned a bachelor's degree in animal science production management before returning to Patterson Family Farms to work alongside her grandfather, Dean Patterson, and her father and brother. Lanier said, there are a lot of things you can do to make cows more
comfortable and show them you care for them. In turn, they will grow better, produce more milk, and give higher quality milk. The more you care for them, the more you get out of that relationship. Today's episode was written by Laurie L. Dove and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other productive topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.