How to Milk a Cow

Welcome to our next installment in our Fresh Milk 101 Series!  Today I am going to walk you through how to milk a cow.  Eric was nice enough to milk Beulah out the other day, so I could take a video and talk about the milking process, so I’ll embed that here for the visual learners as well.  (Thanks Eric!)

How to Milk a Cow

1. The first thing we do is bring Beulah into the milk room, where I clip her halter to a spot on the wall and give her a bowl of feed.  
2. Next we wipe her udder down really well using adult washcloths.  Because we don’t have running water in the barn, we have tried many options for udder cleaning, but this seems to be the best option for us.    
3. The first couple of squirts from each teat go into a small stainless steel pan (often called a strip cup.)  If there is bacteria in the milk, it is likely to be in the first few squirts that have been sitting in the teats, but more than that, I am checking for clumps, off color, or anything else that might indicate mastitis or another problem.  If everything looks alright (which it almost always does) the little pan of milk goes to Batman the cat, who follows us every time we walk anywhere near the barn.
4. After that, we just begin milking out the 4 teats.  Remember, milking is a squeezing action, not a pulling action.  Close your thumb and index finger around the top of the teat, then close your other fingers from top to bottom.  I try to milk with both hands at once so that I can get done quickly, resting one or the other as needed.  (If you are new to this, it WILL get easier as your muscles get used to this!)  I don’t really milk in a particular pattern, I just pick two teats and go for it.  If you have a baby who is about to go back to mama like we do right now, it is OK to leave a little milk, but if not, make  sure to milk her out as thoroughly as possible to prevent mastitis.  
5. When we finish milking, we spray her teats down with a homemade teat spray to clean them again.  
6. After that, we just lead Beulah back to the pasture, and OF COURSE she gets a couple of “cow treats!”  (The package says they are horse treats, but please no one tell Beulah!!)

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