Milking happiness

All those bosses who frown upon music in the workplace and couches where employees can relax a bit would do well to learn from the Norwegian experience. According to a Reuters news report, in 2004, Norway changed the rules so as to replace all sheds where cows were kept in stalls and replace them with ones that allowed them to lie down for half a day on soft rubberised mattresses. According to a doctoral student involved in researching the impact of this, the result has been an increase in the cows’ production of milk by 5-6 per cent. The relaxed lifestyle “boosted the volume of blood flowing through the cows’ udders, which meant more liters of milk produced from each cow”.