The Joy (and not so much joy) of Milking

Milking definitely has a learning curve. Before we milked Suzi the first time (who is a beginning milker herself by the way--first calf) we had watched a million videos on how to milk and figured "ok this shouldn't be too hard". We set out with a bucket of water with a rag,  2 hands, and a bucket for milk. The water and the rag are to wash the udder before milking so that we don't get any unnecessaries in the milk. That part we were doing right. The came trying to squeeze her teats to get the milk--harder than it looks folks!! Oh and Suzi's back 2 teats are really small--so that was making it extra tough. We would milk and milk for half and hour and have a quarter of a bucket and an upset cow. She liked to kick--a lot. 

Our next step--we looked online at milkers and saw how expensive they are and said--you know what lets go a cheaper route. So I went to Walmart and got double breast pump--yep one for women--and we tried that out. It worked, but it wasn't much faster--easier on the hands though. And we were still only getting maybe a 1/2 bucket. Unfortunately, Shane, the one who does the majority of the milking, couldn't make it work. So that idea was out.

We talked and watched more videos and decided that with as much as we spend on dairy in the store, and how much we had invested into the cow, it would be worth our while to get an actual milker. Enter the Surge Pulsator.

not our cow

This had a learning curve as well. Getting Suzi to stand still and let us hook this machine to her teats was an adventure. Shane took the brunt of it and was kicked more times that I can imagine. We had many days where we wondered why we were milking her at all--we weren't getting much. Then as they got into a routine, things got better and now she mostly stands still and we get about 2-3 gallons a day!! Yes that is even with our calf and our goat nursing. 

Here is the routine to make that happen. Our farm is about a 5 min drive from our house. So, each morning Shane drops Dillan off at school and feeds all the animals. While he is doing this he puts Suzi outside and Jumper and Ribeye in a stall together (sometimes with our dog too :) ) They remain separated all day. Then in the evening--around 4, we milk Suzi. Once we are done, we put the 3 of them back together again where they stay together all night. It is really cute the way they immediately run to her to nurse when they are back together. And yes, even when we strip her, she fills right back up for those babies. Oh and they get the good stuff too. We only get about 1/2 the cream she produces because she doesn't fully let down for us. She saves it for them. When we eventually wean them, then we will get the full amount of cream. For now we get about 2-3 cups a day.

So that routine is going pretty well--the milker is a pain in the butt to wash, but no big deal. Then we put the milk in the freezer for a little while to cool it and then into the fridge where is sits until the next afternoon/evening when we skim the cream off. We use the cream for butter, ice cream, cream cheese (a new one I'm trying today), oh and just cream. We don't completely skim the milk--so we drink about 2% I would guess. I figure since we are eating all of it in some form it's ok if the milk isn't full fat. It's still creamy.