Niki hand milking
Niki, our current intern, wanted to try milking Chocolate. I wanted to make sure each quarter of Cho’s udder was functioning properly. The calf had nursed, but it was important to make sure each teat was open and that each part of the udder could empty. If not, it could be a perfect setup for mastitis, infection of the udder.
An udder is divided into four segments, each with a teat. The first milk, after delivery, is the colostrum which has many health benefits for the new calf. But the mom produces much more milk than the calf will be able to drink… so we will take some for possible future use.
We didn’t want to separate mom & calf by taking Cho into the milking trailer so Jim just put a halter on her and tied it to the feed stall. The problem with that… she had much more room to move around. Cho had not been milked in a year so was not too pleased with the change. Jim hobbled her back leg so she could not kick.
Preventing any real kicks@
When a fresh cow is milked initially, it will trigger contractions (painful)… so again, she’s not too happy about being milked BUT, very important to make sure each quarter of the udder is working properly.
It’s a good thing the hobble is in place ’cause she does try to kick! She dances around the stall area and Niki has to be quick and observant on what Chocolate is doing. When you lean up against a cow, to milk, you can actually feel when she is getting ready to kick… you grab the bucket and tilt back… she has a very specific range that she can kick into. Once in the milking stall we will have more control, but we’ll wait a few weeks before we start to take milk.
Hand milking is quite an art… as well as requiring some good hand endurance. You don’t need a lot of strength, but you do need to be able to keep up the motion for a while. Our other Jersey, Bessie, does NOT like to be hand milked. She thinks we take way too long!
Enlarged teat... hand milking
Milking is not just clenching a fist around the teat, but a rolling motion. You actually close off the top of the teat (so the milk will not squirt back up into the udder), and then squeeze down, from top to bottom, to move the milk out. It’s a rolling motion, top to bottom. Once you have enough hand endurance/strength you can get a nice rhythm going.
Hand milking should be done in 20 minutes at the most. It only takes about 10 min to do the job with a small portable milking machine, but it takes me longer to CLEAN my automatic milker , then hand milking takes! The challenge is to build up the hand endurance.
We check each quarter of the udder, and get a good flow of milk from each. Collect about a quart of colostrum, for freezing. And then let Chocolate go nuzzle her calf, who has not budged from his napping spot.
Checking on her calf
Ruminations 