(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Love the sound of this. It's a group called the Dixie Beats. They play traditional New Orleans-style jazz, and they do it in the northwest of England, where they have found a new audience.
(SOUNDBITE OF COWS MOOING)
INSKEEP: They're playing music - I have a note here that it's actually moo-sic - to dairy cows at Smithills Open Farm. And by the way, we do apologize for the excessive number of cow puns to follow.
JOHN PERCIVAL: Well, I actually thought somebody was having a bit of a joke at first. But apparently the farm had heard that cows like jazz music.
INSKEEP: Cows like jazz, according to John Percival, who's the trumpet player and lead singer of this group.
PERCIVAL: At one point, one of the cows reached through the bars and started to nibble and lick the end of me trumpet (laughter) while I was actually playing it. So I had to take it home and give it a good wash soon as we'd finished.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) The end of me trumpet (laughter). Farmer Carl Grisham (ph) was moo-ved to play music to his cows on a speaker after seeing other farmers doing it on TikTok.
CARL GRISHAM: They were running around the field and pushing each other about, getting really excited. They literally were bouncing around the fields listening to the music.
INSKEEP: Literally bouncing around? I don't know. But this is literally a trend. Some people believe that playing music to their cows can boost milk production. But this is NPR, so we ask, does the science support that? We put that question to an animal researcher at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, whose name is Pralle Kriengwatana. And our question really was, is this all a bunch of bull?
PRALLE KRIENGWATANA: So I found eight studies that have been published and, I think, peer-reviewed.
INSKEEP: Peer-reviewed. But who is the peer of a cow?
KRIENGWATANA: Among these eight studies, two do find an increase in milk production. And three find an increase but under certain conditions.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: OK, so there could be something to this. Although, the results so far for farmer Carl Grisham are in-cow-clusive. He's not seen an increase in milk production, but John Percival of the Dixie Beats says the cattle seem to find the music udderly delightful.
PERCIVAL: There were lots of mooing and lots of rhythmic stamping of the feet. One or two enriched the Earth. I don't know that that was a comment or not.
INSKEEP: So the Dixie Beats are grabbing this opportunity by the horns, milking this gig for all it's worth.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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