Music school milk world record attempt
THE sound of sweet ‘moo-sic’ could help a Guernsey group of singers break a very unusual world record.
To celebrate five years of the School of Popular Music, a world record of ‘the most amount of milk produced by a dairy cow in one minute’ is being attempted.
The SOPM Voices Group is going to sing to a Guernsey cow while it is being milked in an attempt to break the current record of 2.25 litres in a minute.
Founder and managing director of SOPM Tyler Edmonds and farmer Rodney Dyke have been working on the plans.
‘It sounds bonkers, but we got the idea after reading research about how cows produce more milk when they listen to music. So we thought “perfect” and merged our love of Guernsey with music,’ said Mr Edmonds.
Mr Dyke added: ‘Whenever we milk the cows there’s always the radio on in the parlour and I will sing along to them. It makes them calmer, you know.’
According to a 2001 study at the University of Leicester, psychologists showed that slow music increases cows’ milk production by 3%, compared to fast music, which had no effect.
The ‘fairly mellow’ piece which will be sung to cows is currently being written by SOPM and will be revealed on the big day at the Vintage Agricultural Show.
‘I have to take the time to find the right cow too,’ said Mr Dyke.
‘They can vary from cow to cow on how much milk they produce. I have to get the udders warm and start milking. It’s going to be a crash course, I haven’t milked a cow by hand in over 40 years, it’s all machine nowadays.’
The milking event is taking place on Saturday 21 July at the Vintage Agricultural Show, which is organised by Mr Dyke.
The event will be one of five this year put on by SOPM to celebrate its fifth anniversary.
