MOOOO-SIC was performed at a west Dorset dairy farm to ensure cows produce the best tasting milk.

Hollis Mead Dairy Farm at Hooke, near Beaminster, invited Weymouth musician Ben Waters to play music for its herd and ensure its milk is cream of the crop.

And the cows were udderly charmed by his crooning.

The dairy farm, which was established last year at the beginning of the pandemic, prides itself upon the quality of its milk - which its puts down to its grass-fed 'happy' cows.

The farm's Rex Fisher said he was inspired to invite boogie-woogie musician Ben along after reading an article about cows loving music.

He said: "I spoke to others on the farm about it who had heard that reggae music is cows' favourite.

"I've seen Ben play before in the village next door and I thought 'it'd be so great for him to come and perform with the cows'.

"Ben is a brilliant performer and the cows really enjoyed it."

Watercombe resident Ben's musical numbers for Hollis Mead's 120 cows included jazz artist Louis Jordan's Caldonia.

Ben said: "Rex sent me an email about three pages long telling me about the cows and I could see how passionate he is about them.

"At the end of the email he invited me to come and play for them and I am so glad he did.

"I did know that animals like jazz music and I'd heard of Jools Holland playing out in the open to animals before.

"I think the cows reacted well to it. Some of them weed and pooed and others put their head through the bars so they could have a good listen. They seemed really happy.

"Dorset is such a big farming community and it's lovely to see it done so well here, putting the animals first."

Hollis Mead is becoming known for its milk vending machines, which are sited at locations around Dorset including Corscombe, Maiden Newton and Poundbury. It also sells butter, yoghurt, cream and kefir.

The farm's extensive pastures are full of wildflowers and 17km (10.5miles) of hedges have been planted in the last 20 years and left to grow naturally, allowing birds and insect life to flourish.

Oliver Hemsley set up Hollis Mead after a long and successful career in the city.

He said: "We only sell to our only vending machines and only care about the quality of our milk. For other producers it's volume-related and for us it's about quality."