How could you not name them?

Want more milk from cow? Get to know her

I love CNN, they always have these odd ball articles that have very little pertinence to 99.999% of their readers. And yet I continue to read them, which is probably why they are still publishing them. So I must not be the only freak out there that thinks this useless info is interesting huh?

Don't ask me why this one caught my eye. We're city folk, at one time our subdivision was a ranch, they even still own a small strip against the freeway. Cattle and horses are still kept on it (for tax purposes of course) and every time we see them through the scrub and trees the kid moos. Sometime I'll pull over and take pictures but since it's the entrance to a large subdivision filled with richie soccer moms I haven't yet. Those woman are insane psycho drivers. Someday though I'll get the chance, the kid really wants a picture plus she's never been up close to a cow before. Yeah yeah, we're city folk, we gleefully find bovines entertaining. Because we don't have to touch them...

As for the title of the post, these scientists (and I'm using the term generously here) decided to find out if the cows that got more individualized attention (i.e. a name) produced more milk. Freakin A people it's a herd animal, of course it is happier when it gets warm fuzzy lovins from everyone around it. It does not take a rocket scientist (or a student from Newcastle University) to figure this one out. Man they got published for this study! Granted it was in an academic journal called Anthrozoos that I'm sure everybody is subscribed to. Right? Ya'll got your monthly publication of this one early. Right? Ya well still. I'm not so sure if this 'study' warrants a published article but hey, if I can 'publish' my words on the internet every day then I suspect there's an audience for everything now isn't there?

Anyway, who owns something live warm and fuzzy that they tend to one on one everyday and doesn't name it? Hell we always named our instruments at work. Temperamental PMS-ing beotches that they were we named them female names. I had one job that had columns (tubes with stuff in them). One that was bigger than average (6' tall 1' in diameter)we always referred to as Bertha. And she was a glass column filled with wee glass beads. We worked with her like twice a year and she still had a name.

Do you think I'd name a cow if I owned one? Hell do you think I'd name 50 cows if I owned 50? If I hooked them up to suction twice a day yes I think I would. Would I talk to her and call her that name? Hell I talk to my instrument at work all the time. Make it big, noisy, warm, fuzzy, and brown eyed and I might give it a middle and last name too. Tell me do you think that's a girl thing? Are all these dairy farm cows being milked by men only? Must be because I really can not imagine working with the same cows day after day for 365 and not having some sort of name for each of them. Be it Fuzzy or Brownie or Betsy each one would have a name on my watch. Now if they were meat cattle bound for the slaughter house there probably wouldn't be as much one on one interaction going on so I may not be as personable with them but I'd betcha I'd still have funky names for them. Not that they'd produce more meat if I did name them but really, do we need more milk? Is there a shortage? The dairy farmers don't earn squat anyway so I don't think 284 liters a year is going to make a dent in the profits. As I understand it it's the pasteurizers that make any sort of money off of milk but it's just not a real money making business.

That wasn't my point though. Would you name your cows that you worked with every day? Even if it were say, 50 cows? Not because they produced more milk mind you but just because you have a propensity to name animals that you spend time with.