A cow produces 22 liters of milk per day. If the same cow wears two virtual reality viewers, one for each eye, specially designed to reproduce the experience of grazing in a meadow, the animal will produce 27 liters of milk per day, 5 more than ‘normal’. This conclusion was reached by Izzet Kocak, a Turkish breeder interviewed by the news agency (also Turkish) Anadolu, in a video released globally by Reuters. Through the viewers, the man offered his cows a large and sunny virtual meadow – complete with the chirping of birds – which makes them feel outdoors even in the harsh winter months, spent mostly indoors.
The viewers and videos used, in the case of cows, have been studied and designed specifically for use by animals. But today, as three years ago, the questions are the same: Do cows perceive virtual reality the same way it is perceived by humans? And if so, can it really produce benefits? Some time after the first experiment in Russia, there are no definite answers to these questions.