On milking cows.

After a week or so of milking our two Dexters, I have decided it is not in the cards for me at this time.  Milking cows is VERY hard on your hands.  I have been in near constant pain since I started.  At first, the management of the two calves and their calves in and out of the milking stanchion was very difficult.  After a few days, and a move and rebuild of the stanchion, we solved that problem.  I was very easily able to get both cows in and out of the stanchion and milk them.  However, since we are not separating them from their calves, the amount of milk they give was highly variable.  At times, I would get a quart, other times, only a few tablespoons.  Plus, when there was not much milk, it was very hard on my hands.  We tried to separate them from their calves for a few hours, but the cows were so upset they broke through their paddock fence.  For us, it is just not worth it.  There are still so many things to do on the farm and with two young kids that to take out an hour or two each day for a little bit of milk does not make sense.

I feel great that I was able to milk them at all.  They were very easy to train, and the act of milking seems pretty basic.  One thing I learned was that cows greatly increase their milk supply with each calf they have up until about their fourth calf and then it plateaus until they are about ten or twelve.  That means that next year, if I wanted to milk, I can expect to get more milk.  Right now it is more important and valuable (both from the perspective of time and resources) to have two very healthy calves that will develop into amazing beef than two try to milk and have stressed cows and calves, plus not much milk.  We are lucky enough to have a dairy that sells raw milk at our local grocery store, so it is a resource that is easy enough to acquire here.

I may try to milk again a few times over the next few weeks, or not.  The cows and calves are happy and healthy and I would rather use my limited time doing other things.  To all of those out there milking daily by hand, you have my utmost respect, it is hard work.