You have two cows, one named Madonna and one named H1294. Which will give more milk? Need you ask? According to researchers at Newcastle University in England, Madonna will outmilk H1294 by 68 gallons or 586 pounds a year. At $15 a hundredweight, Madonna outmilks her merely numbered counterpart by $88 a year.

And if Madonna and 99 of her herdmates - Beyonce, Shakira, Alicia, Edna et al - are all named and given the individual attention that named animals routinely receive, the owner of their herd will have an extra $8,800 a year in his or her milk checks. No injections. No special feed. No drugs. Just extra attention.

The researchers believe it's just the socialization that makes the cows more relaxed, and more productive. And rather than telling H1294 to stop some annoying behavior, don't you think you'd get better results if you could say, "Madonna, stop switching your tail in my face!"

To read about the research, click here:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/05/cow-milk-name.html

They're tied to the past. But in a nice way. About 100 people turned out for a display of aprons, mostly of the fancy variety, at an early October meeting of the Harford County Maryland Historical Society. A colorful history of all sorts of aprons - in all their crocheted, smocked, scalloped and tattetd glory was presented to the gathered. Lancaster Farming correspondent Linda Sarubin was there to, uh, cover the event. You can read about it in the family features section of our current edition.

That's nice. And very melodic. But they still have pay at the checkout counter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnY59mDJ1gg