How Russ Milks "His" Herd of Cows

We have a very simplistic way of milking our cows.  It's done basically the way cows were milked back before the Industrial Revolution when our country was more tied to agriculture and many families kept a "Family Cow."  You can see our simple process by clicking HERE.  We have two Jersey cows currently in milk and the most we've ever milked at one time was three cows.

Russ went off to college at LSU in Baton Rouge and is majoring in Agriculture.  He has a job on campus that is not your ordinary job.  He milks the University's Dairy Science Department herd of Holstein cows.  There are about 75 cows in milk at any given time.  The other day Tricia and Benjamin dropped in on him after their field trip to the State Capitol to see how it is done.  It is a LOT more high tech than our process and thought it would be interesting to show how Russ does it.  Russ' campus job is impressive both in the actual process and amount of work, but mostly the high level of responsibility that he has.  Please excuse me if I miss a step or two as I try to show how Russ milks his cows.

LSU Dairy Science Research Farm

Here is Russ upon seeing his Momma and brother coming to visit him in his milking parlor.  It is a Herringbone milking set-up with the ability to milk eight cows at one time - four on one side and four on the other.  Notice how the cows are at a higher level, so there's no squatting or sitting like we have to milk them. The milking parlor was spic 'n span clean, with no odor and was bright and airy.

The Milk Man

Russ first has to get the cows and bring them in, eight at a time.  You can see him walking them in now. They were surprisingly docile and quiet and walked right in. 

The Round-up

He gets them all in place.  You can see that he's put clean blue towels by each cow. The cart in the center of the aisle contains towels and a bottle of iodine solution for cleaning.

Getting the cows ready

He wipes them down, sprays iodine on the teats and wipes them down again, ensuring that the teats are clean and sterile.

Cleaning them up

He then attaches the teat cups to the teats, which operate under a vacuum and the cows are milked.  This is a lot less strenuous that hand milking the cows like we do it.

Putting on the teat cups

Here is another angle that shows him attaching the cups.  Since the milker hangs beneath the udder, you have to keep a close eye on them as they can kick it off.  

Getting the milking process underway

This is a high tech bit of record keeping and tracking, right here.  See the band around the cow's leg?  That band, when it passes the red 'reader' on the left hand side, identifies the cow to the computer and pulls up the cow's milking history.

Big Brother is watching

As the cow is being milked, the computer weighs the milk being extracted and displays the reading on the monitor as the milk goes into the pipeline and is commingled with the other cows' milk.

Holstein Milk

Here is a better shot of the monitor.  You can see so far that this cow has given 28.9 pounds of milk.  For conversion purposes, a pound of milk weighs 8.6 pounds.  The other interesting thing is that the computer identifies the cow and knows her milking history.  When the cow reaches her average milk production, two lights shine and the milking machine stops.

Weighing the Milk

The milk is piped through stainless steel piping into the next room where there are cooling tanks that get the milk temperature down to 38 degrees very quickly.

Cool Dude next to some cooling tanks

Once the milking is done, everything must be broken down and cleaned thoroughly. Here Russ is breaking down the piping that goes into the tanks.

Then he attaches it to another tube to make a loop.

A cleaning solution is mixed into a big sink and is pulled into the lines sending cleaning solution through the piping to sterilize the lines.

Cleaning the lines

Once clean-up is done, now comes record keeping.  The tanks have a big dip stick in them with readings that correspond to the exact volume of milk in the tank.

Russ measuring the volume of milk

He keeps accurate records by marking down lots of pertinent information.

Thorough Record keeping

Here is the paperwork that must be completed each day that keeps track of the stick reading and corresponding pounds of milk, along with tank temperature.

In addition to this, Russ feeds the cows.  I have a greater appreciation for what he does after watching the process.  LSU sells about half of the milk to a large distributor of milk.  They come pick it up with big tanker trucks.  The other half is used by the Dairy Science Department to make cheese and ice cream for sale in the Dairy Store, but also for use in the University's Dining Halls.  Good stuff!!  This was a learning experience for me and I hope it was interesting for you as well.  It's a lot different from our little operation at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.