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A farm in Russia has introduced virtual reality headsets for its dairy cows in an attempt to reduce their anxiety and ‘improve conditions’.
The headsets, which are adapted to fit cow’s heads, come after research from Moscow’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food which linked a cow’s emotional experience to its milk yield.
Initial test claims the VR increased ‘the overall emotional mood of the herd’.
‘Calm atmosphere’
“In addition to physical needs, researchers began to pay more attention to the emotional state of animals,” the country’s ministry said in a statement.
“Examples of dairy farms from different countries show that in a calm atmosphere, the quantity, and sometimes the quality, of milk increases markedly.”
Backlash
The announcement has received backlash from the vegan community, with many suggesting farmers should focus on dairy-alternatives instead of welcoming VR headsets.
One user tweeted: “Step 1: take oats and blend with water. Step 2: drain and pour. Or, forcibly impregnable a cow, create a virtual reality system that simulates 3D images of natural habitat, rear it for a year to produce better calf breast milk that 65 percent of the world’s population is intolerant to.”
