How Milk is "Made"

Milk begins with what goes into the cow. It starts in the field, is harvested and processed then fed to the cows.

Corn becomes silage (chopped and fermented):






Hay gets bailed (dried grass) or chopped into haylage (chopped and fermented grass):



Fresh grass from the pasture:



Water (the bowl between the cows is a drinking cup with water constantly available):



Of course, milk is not the only thing that results from eating these nutrient filled foods.

Lots of cow poo:



And cow pee:



This is spread on the fields as fertilizer and replenishes the soil's nutrients to help the crops grow.

You probably figured cows all start out as babies:


They are fed milk from a bottle at first then from a bucket. They begin eating grain around a month old then hay around two months. By four to six months they are weaned and eating the same things a cow eats.


It takes almost two years for a heifer to become a cow. A heifer is a bovine who has never had a calf. A cow is one who is, or has, lactated. Most heifers are bred for the first time around 11 months of age. Their gestation is nine months. After giving birth they are milked two (or three on some farms) times a day. They are then bred again after about two months. Around two months before they are ready to have their next calf they have a dry period when they do not produce milk. This helps them to stay healthy and gets them ready for their next lactation. If the cow did not have another calf she would dry herself off and not produce more milk. This cycle continues for the cow until she is sold or dies.

Cows are milked in parlors or in tie stall barns. In a tie barn the cows are tied and the machines are moved from cow to cow. In a parlor the machines are stationary and the cows move to the machine to be milked then back out to the barn afterward. The pictures here are from a tie stall barn, but the process is basically the same no matter where the cows are milked. I should add that this process is also the same whether the cows are being milked on a conventional farm or on an organic farm.

Here, in a tie stall, each cow has it's own stall where she can stand or lay down. She has feed and water in front of her at all times and the gutter behind her to catch her waste. The gutters are cleaned and the stalls are freshly bedded daily.

This barn can tie 60 cows:

Cow in her stall:


The process of milking a cow starts with cleanliness. The milk house is where the milking equipment is kept between milkings and where the milk is stored in the bulk tank until the truck comes to pick it up. This area is separate from the barn where the animals are and kept very clean. Both the milk house and the barn are inspected periodically by the state to assure that things are clean and sanitary.

The milking machines are cleaned (inside and out) and sterilized after every milking. There is a special system that cleans the inside of the hoses and pipes. Think of it as a dishwasher, only better. The system first runs water through the lines then a sanitizer of chlorine and other very strong cleaning agents then an acid cleaner then water again. The system then sits until time for the next milking. Just before each milking the pipes and hoses are once again sanitized.
The bulk tank is where the milk goes to be stored. After the truck picks up the milk the tank is also washed and sterilized. When there is milk in the bulk tank it is kept at 37 degrees F. Here is the box that controls the temperature and the cleaning cycle for the bulk tank:



Here are the machines hung where they are washed:

Another option for milking a cow is the pail milker. This is used on a cow that has just calved, a sick cow who has had medications or a cow who for any other reason can not be milked into the bulk tank. It works the same as the milking machines except the milk is pumped into the pail so it can be dumped or fed to calves.
Pail milker:



When milking is started the machines are taken to the barn. There are two pipe lines that run above the cow's heads. The stainless steel line is what the milk runs through to the milk house and into the bulk tank. The other line is a suction line. The machine is plugged into both of these lines and hung at the cow's head:



The cow is then prepped to be milked. First she is dipped with a cleaning solution, washed and a few squirts of milk are gotten from each of her four quarters. This manual stripping ensures the cow is ready to let down her milk and also to check the milk to be sure it is free from mastitis or other problems. These first few squirts of milk also could contain bacteria entered through the teat so it is squirted on the ground so the milk going into the line is pure.

The dip:

Dipping, cleaning and stripping (getting the first few squirts out) the cow:


Now the machine is ready to go on (there is a video of this at the end)! The plug that goes into the suction line is a pulsator which alternates suction and relief so the teat can be milked. The hose that is plugged into the milk line is tight so that the milk doesn't comes into contact with outside contaminates. Here they milk with four machines, so four cows can be milked at the same time. After one cow is milked out the machine is moved to the next cow and on it goes down the line.
Machines on the cows:
The milk is pumped into the milk house and into the recieving jar:



In the pipe after the receiving jar and before the bulk tank is a very fine filter that is changed with each milking. This filter catches any particles that may be in the milk. The milk is then cooled in the bulk tank and waits for the bulk truck to come pick it up and take it to the milk plant. The milk from this farm is used for fluid milk. Some farm's milk goes to cheese plants.

Here you can see the line running from the receiver jar to the bulk tank:


Fresh milk! Mmmm, good!:
Here is a video of a cow being prepped for milking and the machine being put on (then an attempt at looking at Lydia but the camera did not adjust to the light):