A General Overview of the Dairy-Good Life

So, what does a milkmaid do all day? Well, this blog is dedicated just to that very thing, at least a general idea of how I spend my day, anyway.

It all begins nice and early in the morning. I try to wake up at 6 a.m. every morning, I am not going to lie, that does not always happen. Especially in the winters when it is cold and dark, no thank you! Now, this is different on all farms, I know of numerous dairy farms that are sometimes almost done milking when I am just getting up, but we are a small dairy and we have a little more room to be flexible. Plus, our milk isn’t picked up by the milkman until noonish. There are mornings when I wake up at 5 a.m. and that is Sunday or when we have somewhere we have to be in the morning.

I feel lazy compared to some dairy farmers,
but I love my sleep!

Sundays are a special day on our farm. We still believe that Sundays are a day of rest as the Bible says. We milk our cows and feed them of course, but we don’t work on tractors, no planting, no harvest… EVER. Sundays we milk early so we are done in time to attend church and spend the day thanking our Lord for the wonderful life He gave us. Yay, a few hours of free time away from the farm. (It is the only day we can classify as a day off!)

A.J. and Lucy goose hunting on a
Sunday afternoon

That is what I wish it was always like, but being the dedicated farmers we are, sometimes duty calls and we have to be with a cow going into labor or need to grind feed.

Our Holstein Themed feed bin that has to be
filled every 5-6 milkings

Once I get to the farm, I wash the jars with a sanitize solution to make sure that all the detergent, acid and any other foreign material is cleaned out of the system before milking. Then I set up the milk system, go into the parlor open the doors, move the switches on the collect jars, so the milk flows properly, and let down the feed into the feeders. Then it is milking time and I am off to get the ladies!

This shows our collection jar and bulk tank, along with the
washing sinks.

My lovely Moo Ladies!

We currently milk 64 cows (we are small, small, small compared to many!) If I milk by myself it will take me almost 2 hours but if I have help for most of the time it will only take 1 ½ hours. Sometimes it still takes 2 hours because we like to have fun in the barn. Fun to us is making jokes, listening to music or talking about more serious things going on around the farm or in life in general. Sometimes, we are lucky and have visitors so that cuts into milking time, too.  Our barn is a double-six herringbone parlor and we only have 6 units so we move side to side. (Look for a future blog of all the different types of milk barns).

This shows the right side of the barn, you can see the collection
jars, units, feeding bunk and a little of the feeders.

After milking is complete, it is clean up time and feeding time.  The jars must be cleaned with a detergent and then an acid rinse. My dad usually feeds the cows their silage and I will take a bale of hay out to them. Then it is one of my favorite times of all, cleaning the barn. Now I am not joking when I say this. It is fun to me I guess because I am a neat clean freak. I wash the milking parlor getting rid of any manure or filth that needs to be gone. Along with washing the floors, I scrub the equipment and walls. Then it is nice and shiny clean! Next, the holding pen and the barn get cleaned. We scrape those with the skid loader, believe me, it is a lot easier! The cows usually go out to the pasture during this time.

Dirty Holding Pen

Clean (well cleaner) Holding Pen

By time, all the cleaning is done and finished it is lunch time. After lunch, my afternoon usually is different every day. Sometimes, you may find me in the field spreading fertilizer, running to town for parts, swathing hay or being the taxi cab. I go wherever the guys need me to go or fill in. And then there are the really nice days… where my dad lets me stay home. I love love love those days. I usually nap, do household chores, bake or read a good book. The guys usually get pretty jealous that I get the afternoons off but they can get over it! However, sometimes those days are cut short because the cows need bedded down, calves need taken care of or a cow is having a calf. Then before I know it is 4:30 and I am back to the farm to milk again and go home for the night afterwards! Unless something breaks, a cow needs assistance or one of the guys needs me to do something. Rule No. 1- Everything to do with farming all depends on the weather!

Lovely view of the beef cattle on the Milo stalks

Have a dairy-good day!

The Milkmaid

P.S. – This is only one of my daily dairy products- yum!