Appropriately enough, the start of my week’s vacation coincided with the birth of Glenda the calf and our new milking obligations.
After yesterday’s experimentation, we resolved that we’d set the milking schedule at 7 AM and PM; thus, we set the alarm clock for 6:45 to give ourselves a few minutes to wake up and prepare for the excursion to the barn.
The prep work takes a few minutes. The stainless steel milking bowl and a storage pot need to be cleaned; ideally, this is done right after the milking, boy did we flake out after last night’s milking. We also need a bucket of warm, soapy water for cleaning of udders, and a bucket of grain to keep Girl happy and pre-occupied while little people hands grab and yank at her.
We also don appropriate milking clothes – farm duds that’re clean but which we don’t mind getting dirty – and we do some stretches. It is early, after all, and we’re going to spend a while down there in the barn in sometimes awkward positions.
We mosey down to the barn together; the air is cool and damp after last night’s apparent rainfall. I channel George Clooney and sing, “I…am a man…of constant milk-ing. I see ud-ders…all the time!” and Farmgal cracks up.
Arriving at the barn, we find two reasonably content cows lying on their bed at the far end of the stall. Girl looks good, has a little bit of healthy-looking discharge from her nether regions. Glenda’s umbilical stump looks good, her sides look okay, and she seems content.
A little grain goes into the feeder to get Girl’s attention and draw her into position. I put the chain around Girl’s neck to keep her in position at the feeder; the chain is sturdy enough to hold her, and the weight – while not outrageous – is enough to remind her that she’s being constrained. Meanwhile, Farmgal is cleaning the Girl’s udders.
Only after that’s done do I move down and use two thick lead-lines to tie Girl’s outer, rear leg to metal stanchions; doing it during the udder cleaning risks getting kicked if Girl objects to the cleaning. With the leg tied, she is unable to effectively kick our hands or the bucket away while we work; again, the lines are heavy enough that Girl is aware of them and less inclined to fight them.
As it turns out, she’s feeling pretty mellow today, and there is very little fussing, with no kicking. Farmgal starts out on both front teats. I switch off with her when her hands need a break, and vice versa. We dump the contents of the bowl into the storage pot every few minutes to ensure the bowl’s not too heavy and that we don’t lose too much if it gets knocked away or contaminated. Whoever’s not milking dumps in some more of her alloted grain every few minutes to keep Girl occupied.
The front teats milk out well. The back teats are more work; they’re smaller and just don’t let down as much. After about an hour, our storage pot is full to the rim, the front teats are pretty much done, and the rear teats are okay. Farmgal resolves that we’ll go back down at noon to work on the rear a little more.
We move the milk out of the stall and untie Girl’s leg, then rouse Glenda and encourage her to finish off all four teats. The calf is somewhat lackadaisical about it, but obliges. Naturally, we try to focus her on the rear teats that aren’t as well drained. While this is going on, I unchain Girl’s head.
Farmgal supervises them as I scoop out cow flops and add a bit of new bedding.
With all that done, we leave Girl with a new load of hay and access to her pasture. Head back up and filter the milk through a jelly bag to three large jars. Farmgal decides to make a little colostrum butter and spends the half hour blending and shaking a small bowl, which is why I’m writing this instead of her. She reckons it’s the freshness of the milk that is requiring so much agitation.
And on that note, I’m finishing this off and preparing to take over the butter churning task myself. Yay for fresh milk!
Stay tuned for a farmgal overview of the same process, but with different eyes..
Just another Day on the Farm 
The Milk Maid’s Prayer…
May Girl let down right smartly
And your pails remain chaff-free.
May your cream churn up right off the bat
One hunnert percent sweet butter fat.
LOL, thanks DH!
I’m jealous… How I would like to have a cow on our yard! But the time consuming task of learning to milk isn’n something I’m waiting for… I suppose it will be a lot quicker when you are used to it. Some time ago my dad revived some memories of old family members and told about one of his uncles. With the start of the WOII, he was evacuated with the cows of his family and neighbours. During the journey -on their own feet, man and cows- the poor beasts had to be milked. The man milked that day a hundred (!) cows, yes, by hand! I suppose he didn’t care about the last drops, but still…
I see you have a lot of uses for the colostrum already. Very good stuff, isn’t it?
Very, very good stuff, my grandmother milked 14 cows by hand back in the day, I just think about the amount of work and shake my head,she must have had arms and hands of steel. Its going well, my biggest issue is that I need to give my hands/arms mini breaks, and so while I am getting more and more milk done two handed milking, once they give out on me, I am taking longer due to the fact that I am milking one handed.. thankfully I have a calm steady cow.
yes, the colostrum is amazing, the sad thing is that so many folks are still told to not use it, I was just reading yesterday where someone gave the advice of throwing out the first weeks worth of milk.. so many good things to do with the first milkings and throwing it out is not part of it that’s for sure.
“Throw it out”! Why on earth would you throw it out?
Honest, it was a old timer that told them, don’t use the first weeks worth of milkings, even girls breeder told me to not use to use any of the milk for the first three days, I think that most folks just don’t know that you can use the colostrum, you would not want to drink it, its really not like milk even I will agree with that, Its not like we see different food products with colostrum offered in the stores. most small farmers know that they want to freeze it for future use.
I am guessing that most folks would in fact if possible use it for the critters, Well, Girl gave me 3 gallons again this morning and looks to be a a quart of cream per three gallons of milk, the next two or three weeks will give me the answer on if that remains steady, plus the calf is free drinking but she can’t be taking that much at this point.. one more day and then we will start jugging Miss Glenda up at night, looks like we are calf sharing at this point, I just can’t bring myself yet to pull the two of them apart..
As you said, she’s not taking much and, if you were even contemplating keeping her (or selling her to someone else; ) it would be a good investment in her future health to stay on the teat, yes?
Deb, regardless of if she is on the teat or not, she will of course be getting momma’s milk, so her overall health is going to be excellent in regards to her being a future milker or a freezer yearling, at a certain point there are a number of factors that will come into play on this, and only time will give me the answer.
No, it’s not milk; so perhaps that’s why someone (with a quota) might be concerned about diluting their fat content? But still, to throw any food away just seems WRONG, doesn’t it?
Well I can’t believe my son is actually milking a cow. Please take a photo for me. You mention D-I-L that your grandmother milked cows by hand. So also did DH’s greatgrandfather and great uncle do on their farm. I can remember going into the barn half full of cows and grandpa sitting on the stool offering me a squirt of milk! Can’t wait to see this on my visit.