[From CNET’s Crave blog; a 1:43 minute video is here]

  

March 27, 2010

Moo-Tube: Russian cows get LCD TVs

by Tim Hornyak

A farm in Russia has turned its cows into TV junkies by installing high-tech LCD televisions in a barn.

The farm in the Moscow region began its Farm 2.0 experiment earlier this month in an attempt to boost milk quality.

The lack of open spaces and visual stimuli during winter apparently gives cows the blues, affecting milk. The farmers decided to find out whether TV can make the animals any happier.

So they trucked in a bunch of screens and set them up in a barn. Nothing but the best for these bovines, though. They got high-def Samsung LED LCDs, among the thinnest in the world.

What’s on? Ultra-clear, udder-stoking images of green grass and Alpine meadows. See for yourself. The farmers installed a Webcam in the barn, online here.

The heifers also got better lighting and ambient music. As part of the experiment, another group of cows had no changes to their environment. The trial will last a month, and milk from the two groups will be compared.

If television really does improve milk quality, you can put that old CRT to good use at your nearest farm. Heck, Nielsen ratings could track a whole new demographic. Tiger Woods, playing on all that lovely green stuff, could get lots of new fans. And that ain’t no bull.

Via English Russia

Crave freelancer Tim Hornyak is the author of “Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots.” He has been writing about Japanese culture and technology for a decade.