How many cows can one person hand milk in one day?

Buckeye said:
So, before you get all handsy with said cow, to you have to sweet talk her a little bit, maybe buy her a glass of wine, or do you just jump right in and hope for the best?
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You can try scratching her around the base of the tail, they usually enjoy this, and raise their tail a little to show they are at ease, (never heard of alcohol being necessary, or a good ides, and they may fall over intoxicated of course!). 🍷❌🚫
 

grahamg said:
Some people prefer to use udder cream (also called udder balm or udder butter) to lubricate the cow’s udder. Like petroleum jelly, udder cream will reduce friction during milking. You can purchase udder cream at any farm or ranch supply store."
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I think this is the same product, as what is called Bag Balm,
which is commonly sold at lots of pharmacies and general stores, for other uses by humans, (many of whom have never seen a cow :cool:;) )
such as for soothing and healing of their own human skin, which might have sore, dry or cracking, skin irritations.
 

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Just done a bit more research on thread topic, you'll all be enthralled to know!!

It looks as though my dad was on the ball saying ten cows is about the limit before your grip gives way because it says on a website that it takes about ten minutes to milk each cow by hand.

Therefore, allowing time for feeding the next cow, putting the pail of milk somewhere to cool etc., you're probably going to take about two hours to milk your ten cows. In the days when cows were milked by hand all the other jobs were very labour intensive, and almost all involving hand tools, so this would be another limiting factor as to how many cows you could manage.

There we have it, I contend my dear old dad was about right, (and why wouldn't he be!). :)
 
grahamg said:
Therefore, allowing time for feeding the next cow, putting the pail of milk somewhere to cool etc., you're probably going to take about two hours to milk your ten cows. In the days when cows were milked by hand all the other jobs were very labour intensive, and almost all involving hand tools, so this would be another limiting factor as to how many cows you could manage.
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Excellent point and good reminder, as well.(y) That is true. All of those tasks would be straining for the people's backs, too.

And of course, we all agree with the conclusion, that unless there were vastly overwhelming evidence to the contrary, your dad would surely have been right! :D
 
Kaila said:
Excellent point and good reminder, as well.(y) That is true. All of those tasks would be straining for the people's backs, too.
And of course, we all agree with the conclusion, that unless there were vastly overwhelming evidence to the contrary, your dad would surely have been right! :D
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We shouldn't forget my mother would have put him right on the number of cattle someone could milk at each end of the day, because she too, along with her sisters and brother, used to help her father hand milk his cows. ;):giggle:

My grandfather on my mother's side had some very gentle or placid shorthorn cattle, so this meant they were pretty much as safe as they come, especially as they were "home reared", so used to the people handling or milking them.

My paternal grandfather's cattle would have been shorthorns or possibly Ayrshires, (my dad farming mainly Ayrshire cattle too when he got married, before black and white Friesians took over in terms of popularity, not least because they were equally high yielding, and more placid generally than the Ayrshires).
 
Kaila said:
Excellent point and good reminder, as well.(y) That is true. All of those tasks would be straining for the people's backs, too.
And of course, we all agree with the conclusion, that unless there were vastly overwhelming evidence to the contrary, your dad would surely have been right! :D
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Can I just mention my fathers "ego" here, he used to tell me sometimes how "popular" he was, (my uncle admitting it was true, wherever he went everyone told him how much they liked his elder brother, my dad).

When I told a farming friend of this expression of ego, and belief in his own self worth, someone who had only met my father twice, and towards the end of my fathers life, he said "Wow, that does show a large ego", (this man not being short of ego either let me say, so his expression of surprise meant something indeed).

So there we are, my dad would have lapped up the flattery, and of course never doubted he knew what he was talking about. :)
 
Two cows having a natter:

"I see they've got new people coming to milk us, Grace."

"Ooooh, I'm so sore, Daisy, a young fellow came in yesterday, he grabbed two tytes and started tugging, he started sucking on another, then this strange sound started coming out of his nose, like bagpipe music it was."

"That's, 'Amazing Grace'." :)
 
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we had a family milk cow for years, she "cast her withers" , if you know what that is you might be a cow person. we butchered her and ate her. cold right? nope, farming.
 
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ronaldj said:
we had a family milk cow for years, she "cast her weathers" , if you know what that is you might be a cow person. we butchered her and ate her. cold right? nope, farming.
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I've heard of "casting withers" before, not good at all, can be stitched, but often recurs, (spelling awry means you're probably from similar background to my own, and I couldnt have got past the first round in a "spelling bee"!).
 
Gary O' said:
If I remember correctly, Holsteins give the most milk
Jerseys give the richest (lotsa cream)
We made a lot of butter from a Jersey
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You're right, Holsteins look like "hatracks" but give very large milk yields, averaging over ten gallons per day across a whole herd I'm told, (they would have taken some hand milking, if they existed back then?). :)
 
One of the things on my Bucket List is to milk a cow. I lived across the road from a dairy farm, until they sold all their cows a few years back. Couldn't milk one of their cows - they used milking machines and probably worried about liability if the cow kicked me or something. I don't know much about cows, but I like them.

Another Bucket List item is to bottle-feed a calf. Then I found out that lots of times, what's in the bottle in not milk, but calf formula of some kind. I prefer baby cows to drink milk straight from their mothers.

Note: I am still a Citiot, despite living in a rural area for more than a decade. Now I know more, but have never put any of it into practice (except for a large vegetable garden, and learning to can tomatoes. The most surprising thing I found out was that one cannot have chickens live in the basement to keep them warm during winter. Thank goodness my husband's uncle had a large farm, so he knew the hazards of that. Never did have chickens. I tried to get my neighbor to share a herd of chickens with me, but he wanted to never kill them -- effectively ending up with a nursing home for senior chickens. I wanted to be self-sufficient at least for our eggs and meat.
 
WheatenLover said:
One of the things on my Bucket List is to milk a cow. I lived across the road from a dairy farm, until they sold all their cows a few years back. Couldn't milk one of their cows - they used milking machines and probably worried about liability if the cow kicked me or something. I don't know much about cows, but I like them.
Another Bucket List item is to bottle-feed a calf. Then I found out that lots of times, what's in the bottle in not milk, but calf formula of some kind. I prefer baby cows to drink milk straight from their mothers.
Note: I am still a Citiot, despite living in a rural area for more than a decade. Now I know more, but have never put any of it into practice (except for a large vegetable garden, and learning to can tomatoes. The most surprising thing I found out was that one cannot have chickens live in the basement to keep them warm during winter. Thank goodness my husband's uncle had a large farm, so he knew the hazards of that. Never did have chickens. I tried to get my neighbor to share a herd of chickens with me, but he wanted to never kill them -- effectively ending up with a nursing home for senior chickens. I wanted to be self-sufficient at least for our eggs and meat.
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Let me see, where to start, (a "herd" of chickens you say,.....!).

I can fully understand why the neighbouring dairy farm you mentioned could not allow you to fulfill your ambition to milk a cow, and the reason I suggest involves no reflection upon your good self. Any stranger in the milking parlour or cow shed can upset them enough to cause them to withhold their milk when you're there. They will be sensitive to strange sounds/voices, smells, the way people unfamiliar with handling cattle move or behave, their body language even!
My father used to tell his children, when helping him move the cattle or sheep, to "watch their eyes". You do have to concentrate all the time because if you do not the animals will know your mind is not on the job and be more likely to misbehave!
One more funny thing, it has been proven that sheep placed in a straw bale tunnel, a tunnel splitting in two, and at the end of each dead end the fork leads to you place pictures of human faces, one smiling, the other grimacing, the sheep will choose to stand near the smiling picture.
Some years ago I suffered with depression, and when I attempted to move my fathers cattle they tended to be quite difficult to handle. When my mental state improved I spent more time looking after my fathers cattle, and even had a small "herd" myself, (you might have called it a "flock"?). The cattle became much calmer when I attempted to work with them or move them, and I put this down to their ability to pick up on my stress level, (my dad would have called it "reading your mind"). :)
 
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