All I want for Christmas is moo

FARMER Joe Hayden will play carols and festive songs to his Baileys Ladies in the run-up to Christmas.

- MARGARET HUSSEY

These ladies are his 230-strong herd of Holstein Friesians who provide milk for the Irish cream liqueur.

Joe, 65, says playing them music at his farm in County Wicklow, Ireland, affects their production hugely.

"We play music to them every morning and every evening. In the past in Ireland farmers would sing to their cows," he explains. "They actually love the sound of the human voice. They are very curious animals and respond really well to music.

"Science tells us that music has a soothing effect, releasing hormones which means the milk is of a higher quality as they are less stressed." He adds: "When it comes to Christmas we have a Spotify playlist - Do They Know It's Christmas?, It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Silent Night, and The Little Drummer Boy by David Bowie and Bing Crosby." The cows listen to music during the rest of the year too with Coldplay, The Killers and U2 some of their favourites.

"For some of the older cows we play Bruce Springsteen. We want to be very inclusive when it comes to our playlist." It seems to be working as every year Joe's herd produces 1.5 million litres of milk for Baileys and during the festive season one bottle is sold every two seconds.