Anyone still milking by hand?

[backforty]

I have a jersey cow I milked by hand. Shes dry now. Although I only had her for 3 months and she was at the end of her lactation so wasnt giving much. I Made some butter as well as ice cream. I'd like to do more of that when she hopefully has her calf the end of jan. I find hand milking to be relaxing, the cow must to sometimes she fell asleep and I'd hear her start snoring.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I'd say you have a relaxing technique!

 

[Imissmygirls]

Cows these days are bred to have short teats. Makes it tougher to milk by hand.
I had a family milk cow for 2 years that I milked by hand. When she went to the fair the first year, we didn't know if she would tolerate a milking machine!

When daughter brought home the city boy she was to marry, milking the cow was a rite of passage. I hear those pics are blackmail material now.

 

[hollybird]

we milk buy hand and my mom loves it for her arthritis. i'm not fast enough and the cow runs out of grain before i'm done. i only have one acre now on my home place. i do need a lawn mower for my orchard though.

 

[Yates Dairy]

Use to but we have over 500 milk cows now so we pretty much had to switch to machine. We have a mixture of breeds but mostly Holestein (sorry about spelling if it was wrong)

 

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

I still milk by hand.

I'm only milking one goat right now. All the others are drying up and getting ready for breeding.

My only milk cow, a Jersey, is off to visit her new man for a little while to be bred.
We are having her bred to a Red Angus. We couldn't find a Jersey bull locally this year.

We were mostly using her for a nurse cow for raising some calves, but I did milk her between sets of calves.

I prefer the goat milk over the cows milk, though.

Jean

 

[animalfarm]

I have 3 jerseys and I milk by hand. Its really not that hard. Practice, practice, practice (which is hard to avoid). The feed I put into the cows comes out as feed for people, pigs, chickens , orphan calves, dogs cats...so I feel a milk cow is a good investment for a small farm even if one cannot sell her by-products. Yes we have cheese, butter, and cream in limitless quantities here, and now I am reading that raw milk makes great fertilizer for the fields so now even dumping excess milk is a value added activity.

 

[michickenwrangler]

When I had goats I milked by hand. My neighbor always used a milking machine with her goats and the few times I goat sat for her and had to put the thing together and clean it, it didn't seem like that much of a time saver for 3 goats.

 

[PattySh]

Milking 2 goats this year by hand. after being out of goats for several years. Have 6 bred for Feb-Apr kids. Also raising a Jersey/Heifer calf for future milk cow. She is a year old will be ready to be bred hopefully by spring (haven't seen her in heat yet but she is vet checked ok). Bought a refurbished surge milker this fall!I enjoy hand milking but with 6 and a future cow milking was sure I couldn't handle milking that volume. I haven't tried it yet other than plugging it in etc. Waiting for the spring surge of milk as I'm only milking once a day and getting 1/2 gal now.

 

[cat1994]

Im going to milk by hand. When my cow, a lil holstein dairy cow, is old enough