A Gippsland cow has been named in a local competition to appreciate cows and to measure if her performance improves over the next 12 months because she has a name.
The three-year-old Jersey cow, in James Clyne’s herd on his Newry dairy farm, milked 7717 litres, or 662kg milk solids, last year.
She is the second cow named Clarabelle in his herd. The original Clarabelle is a Holstein cow.
The competition to name a cow was promoted by Southern Rural Water as part of celebrating National Cow Appreciation Day, in July.
The competition attracted entries from across Victoria and was won by Ciele Towb, a local person living in the Latrobe Valley.
“Clarabelle is a girl’s name of Latin origin, meaning bright and beautiful, and is the name given to Walt Disney’s cartoon cow character who was Minnie Mouse’s best friend,” Ciele said.
“It’s also one of several names used for cows years ago that ended with ‘bell’, possibly referring to the bells once worn around their necks to keep track of them.
“I’m so excited to have won this competition.”
Southern Rural Water manages water allocations for the Macalister Irrigation District, which includes dairy farms in the Newry zone in Central Gippsland.
SRW water supply manager Matt Cook said there were many good suggestions for names for a cow.
Matt said naming a cow in the Clyne milking herd would enable SRW to measure a hypothesis that cows with names were more productive.
More than 15 years ago in the United Kingdom, Newcastle University researchers Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson published their original research stating cows with names increased production.
Their research identified giving a dairy cow a name increased production by up to 284 litres.
They measured the interaction of 516 farmers and stock managers with cows, and concluded a more caring attitude towards cows with names created a cow that was more relaxed around humans.
Herds containing cows with names measured a 258 litre/cow higher milk yield than those without.
“We’ll work with James Clyne to track the winning cow’s performance over 12 months and report on the results on National Cow Appreciation Day next year,” Matt said.
“Our new Clarabelle did well last year, producing 7717 litres, or 662kg milk solids,” James said.
“I’m interested to see if a personal touch of a name gives her an edge and helps her produce more milk this year.”