The Milking Experience

On Thursday our practical was milking at Langhill Farm.  The practical that I had been looking forward to since school started.  Everyone who had already done it had told me that it was messy and that they had to duck flying poo and swinging tails covered in poo.  Yet I was still anxious to do it.
Standard procedure once you get to either farm; Langhill (dairy cattle) or Easter Bush (sheep), you put on “waterproofs” and “wellies”.  (Translation: waterproof shirt and pants and rubber boots.)  Then we are broken down into smaller groups.  This week we were broken down into groups for milking, cattle handling, weighing and condition scoring and sheep handling. 
The milking parlour is a 28:28 Herringbone parlor.  It holds 28 cows at a time and milks them with it's 28 milking units.  In contrast there are parlours that hold 28 cows but only have 14 milking units.

First the layout of the parlor.

Aerial view.




Here's an example of a very clean, high tech milking parlour.  The keypads are the computerized milking units.

The cows are moved from the field or cow shed and into the collecting yard just behind the milking parlor.  Here they can become impatient and push at the milk gate trying to be the first in. 

Here's an example of the receiver (blue part) that they pass through before entering the parlour.  This identifies the cow for the milking machine and automatic concentrate feeder.

Each machine has it’s own milking cluster.

 

Now the process

The cows are herded into the collecting yard then let into the milking parlor 14 per side.  As they pass through the blue curtains they are identified.  The machines know by the identification number of the cow what their normal daily yield is and will alert you if you need to hold their milk from the bulk tank.  Reasons for not putting their milk into the bulk tank are if they have antibiotics in their system or they have just calved and you want the colostrum for the calves.
Once the cows are in the parlor you start with a dry wipe of the teats.  This is apparently the best way to prevent bacteria in the milk.




Then you attach the cluster which to reach the front teats requires that you lean right in. Sometimes the cows get antsy and kick their feet around a bit.  So you have to watch for that.





As the cows are being milked the feed troughs automatically feed the cow concentrate to supplement them for the amount of milk they are giving. It's a very fine line; they want to feed them enough for them to produce the milk but not too much that they gain weight.

At langhill the clusters are automatically removed.  They sense the decrease in milk flow past a set point and let air into the unit.  By doing this the suction is broken and the cluster falls off, at the same time there is a retractable cord that the machine winds up so that the cluster is pulled up behind the cow.  Some of the cows know that they are done and start to kick their back feet around.  At this point you can gently tug on the cluster to remove it if the cow hasn't done so already.

After the cluster comes off the teats are then sprayed with iodine to prevent infection.


In case you didn’t know, cows are indiscriminate poopers**.  They poop and pee whenever and wherever they feel like it, including during milking.  If you didn’t notice in the milking parlor picture you are standing 2 feet lower than the cows.  This puts their floor at mid-thigh to waist level.  This means that when they poop or pee it splatters and that means it splatters on YOU.  They are also really great at using their tail as a poop flinging device.  So at some point during the experience you will get poop on you.  Hopefully it hits the waterproofs and not your face.


Here is the reason Holstein-Friesian cows are black and white.



And where does condensed milk come from?

hehehehe.



**I’m borrowing this term from a friend.