Do Goats Serenaded By Soft Jazz Produce Better Cheese?

Music is the universal language, and apparently that motto also applies to farm animals. Cypress Grove is a California creamery well-known for its award-winning goat cheese. The secret to the quality dairy products isn't necessarily the goats' diets or living quarters, but rather their taste in music. Every day the farm's 900 goats are milked to the sounds of smooth jazz, a soundtrack that farmers say relaxes the animals, according to Food & Wine Magazine.

The ideal situation for a milk-producing animal is tranquility because stress will "lead to feed intake drops, decreased production, illness, and low immunity," according to Ryan Andrus, the creamery's dairy director. The calmer goats then produce more quality milk than if they were under stress.

Andrus finds that the type of music matters as well. The farm tried classical music, but the changes in tempo and volume startled the goats. Jazz music with too many horns was also not preferable.

"That is why we can't play things like Thelonius Monk or some of the more avant-garde, creative jazz music," he told Food & Wine. It has to be light, mellow, and low on intensity."