| Untagged | 1 Feb 2009 |
| In the immortal words of The Beatles (and Angus Kennedy) ‘All you need is love’... by agkennedy |
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Contented cows (as opposed to depressed ones) produce up to 500 more pints of milk a year than not-so-happy cows. So it’s proven... We can rest and put our feet up and say our lives are complete.
It’s true... A happy cow will produce more milk than a sad one. I am sure that if they had extended their research, they probably would have discovered that a happy chicken would lay more eggs and that animals in general, including humans, are more productive if they are happy.
The study was carried out by Dr Catherine Douglas of the Newcastle University's School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. The research involved 516 farmers across the UK and was published in the journal Anthrozoos. It found that farmers who ‘loved’ their cows – many gave them names too – had much higher yields per animal than unloved cows.
It begs the question; Does the milk taste better too? Will this concept get completely out of hand and we will find ourselves with food labels with great smiling cows on them saying ‘taste the happiness’? Interesting concept, nothing amazingly new, but products made from ‘happy’ animals is an interesting idea.
We keep chickens at home and my loving daughter feeds them, strokes them, and talks to them. She even takes them for walks around the garden. They all have names too – Elly, Gabi, Badmum and BabyMum (the baby of Badmum!) Her favourite chicken was called Ming-Ming, but unfortunately it got eaten by the neighbours’ Jack Russell dog and is now buried in the rose beds. But you know what? Not a single egg! Clearly we do not have the farmers touch, or perhaps they don’t like their names. Or maybe we do not tell them ‘direct in their beaks’ that we love them?
We did eat one of our chickens on Boxing Day. He was a cockerel called Shaggy – he was pecking all the others anyway and, I must say, he tasted really good..He was a very happy chicken. Well, until I shot him in the back of he head anyway!
So, we must all be happy. We will (I promise), look better, feel better, taste better and be more productive! I love my wife and we have four kids...Need I say more! So go out there and love. Love anything that you are about to kill and love it when you eat it afterwards too! Life is all about love anyway. I really think I would be happier if I ate a chocolate that was made with the milk of a very happy cow and a cake from the eggs of a contented chicken.
So, please do try and be happy. With lots of love... until next time
