To Boost Milk Production, Cows Get To Wear VR Goggles

If you visited the RusMoloko dairy farm in Russia, you might have thought you have come to a strange futuristic film set with cows wearing VR goggles running around.

However, these VR goggles are not for films. In fact, they are for the dairy cows to enhance their conditions, enabling them to relax, thus producing more milk.

Around the world, different industries are shifting toward computerization for better working conditions, it’s not strange to see the farming industry does the same.

The headsets are the combination of technology and years of experience working in the dairy farming industry.

These VR goggles are the solution to the question of how to increase milk production. Besides the physical needs of the cows, the researchers also researched the cows’ emotional state. They had taken into account the examples of different dairy farms globally. These examples suggested that the cows would produce better milk if they were in a calm atmosphere.

For example, in some dairy farms in America, in the stalls of the cows, there are rotating brushes to give the animals a massage. Meanwhile, in Europe, robotic systems are used to let the cows roam freely and broadly. Some farms in Russia play classical music around the farm through loudspeakers to soothe the cows. All these methods have helped the cows to be more relaxed, thus producing more milk.

This makes VR headsets don’t seem to be impractical.

Developers worked with veterinarians to design these VR goggles carefully in a VR studio. They made changes to the normal VR goggles made for humans to fit the cows’ structural features.

VR views were created to fit the cows’ vision. For example, cows have a higher perception of red. Weaker tones like green and blue were also taken into account. Green summer fields are also simulated via a unique program created by virtual reality architects.

After putting on their headsets, experts noted that there was a decrease in the cows’ anxiety levels and an increase in their mood.

However, to determine whether the device actually boosts milk production or not, researchers still need to conduct further studies.

If the results of this method are positive, the combination of dairy farming and modern technology could potentially have a lasting effect. We may soon see herds of cows or flocks of sheep running around wearing VR headsets in the future.