The compilation of tunes - made up exclusively of cows' noises recorded on British dairy farms - is being featured on www.mootunes.org in a bid to make the sounds of the farmyard accessible to everyone.

The free tracks can be played online or downloaded in mp3 format to make unusual ringtones, message alerts or alarms.

As well as festive classics such as Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Jingle Bells, the 'moo-sic' also includes such ringtone favourites such as the iconic Nokia ringtone.

The unlikely bovine rival to iTunes is the brainchild of DairyCo, the not-for-profit organisation working on behalf of British dairy farmers.

The 'Mootunes' were recorded over a period of five days on two farms in the Midlands and in North Yorkshire, with the farmers using their smartphones to pick up the live animal sounds. The cows' noises were digitally enhanced using computer wizardry and the best moos were assembled by a sound technician into the moo-based ditties now available online.

Andrew Gilman, 33, one of the farmers who collected the cow sounds, says: "Most people who visit our farm are surprised about how high-tech dairy farming is. I use my phone for anything from recording milk deliveries to keeping up to date with Facebook, so I thought it would be fun to see how a recording of my cows would turn out. It was actually quite tricky getting good recordings - normally the cows don't make that much noise. So I had to be very patient and wait for them to be more vocal - usually just before feeding time when they were excited about getting their food."

Andrew, who runs Statfold Farm in Tamworth, Staffs, and has a herd of 140 Holstein-Friesians, adds: "I was amazed at how the raw cow sound has been changed by the computer experts into these 'mootunes' - they're not exactly Beethoven, but make really unusual ring or alarm tones."

Amanda Ball, who heads up the communications team at DairyCo, says: "Many people are interested in farming and where their food comes from, but rarely get the opportunity to visit a working dairy farm or see cows close at hand. We're hoping Mootunes might tempt members of the public to find out more about dairy cows and how they're looked after by farmers. It's a bit of fun and we really want people to enjoy the tunes, but there is also a serious challenge here in trying to help make the connection between those who produce our food and those who consume it."

Amanda adds: "Sometimes there can be a perception that farming is old-fashioned, but most dairy farmers not only depend on sophisticated equipment to run their farms but also rely on smartphones to run their business efficiently. We challenged them to use their phones to get really creative and record their animals' day to day sounds - fortunately their cows were happy to oblige. The tunes are a real novelty - and perfect for mobile phone ringtones, though I don't think they'll make the Christmas No1."

The latest initiative is not the first to use quirky ways to get the public thinking about farms and dairy production. Earlier this year a cow from Lancashire, Lefty, became the first cow on Twitter with all the latest gossip from the farmyard.

Notes
Six sound clips are freely available for playing online or for download in mp3 format for playing on a variety of devices from www.mootunes.org.

The song titles are:

• Deck the cows
• Jingle cows
• Moo alert tune
• Classic Nokia ringtune
• Silent cows
• We moo you a merry Christmas