The family milk cow

[sawguy21]

We never had cows thank goodness, I never wanted anything to do with anything that stupid and stubborn, but mom bought raw milk from the neighbours. We got it in square bottles with the cream on top. Mmmm, that was good. After the neighbours retired and moved to town, mom tried to save money by buying powdered skim milk. :'( There is no way of making that stuff palatable. Yech.

[Zundapp]

When I was a kid, one of the neighbors we bought from was a older lady down the road. Wasn't any relation but we always called her Aunt Alice, made cheese that smelled like dirty socks. She had a Brown Swiss/Jersey X. That cow gave the thickest, richest cream I ever had, over a third of the gallion was cream. I still remember that incrediable stuff poured on oatmeal & huckleberrys, or on huckleberry cobbler. The butter Mom made from it was undescribably delicious. Man, makes my cholesterol go up just thinking about it.

[isawlogs]

I remember as a kid going to the barn to milk da stupid cows with a glass and spoon in one hand and the can of Nelson's chocolat in da ouder , man dat was da best ever chocolat one good have ever had tasted .... I want to get a stupid one to have here .. only for that .  ;D

[Frickman]

I grew up milking Holsteins, even an occasional black Angus from the beef side that had lost her calf.

[Onthesauk]

We always had one or two milk cows when I was growing up.  Still remember my Dad bringing a new one home one evening and trying to teach her about electric fences.  He worked for the longest time trying to drag her over and get her nose on the wire.  Finally he was hot and tired and without thinking he reached out and drug the wire to the cow.  Nearly knocked him down.  We teased him about that for years.

[pigman]

Like a lot of farmers in this area my dad milked a few cows . When I was six he sold all the milk cows except  for one to have for our own milk. I never had to milk the cow because of my older brother.  He was not the sharpest tack in the box when he was young. Come to think of it, he never was very smart anytime . When I was about eight my dad thought I should start taking turns with my two older brothers milking the cow. It seems my less than bright middle brother told dad that he watched me milk the cow and I didn't do it correctly . So dad said the brother could just take my place in the rotation. 8)


Bob the non milker

[Handy Andy]

  We always had from 3 to 5 milk cows.  My mom had a separator and we ran the milk through that thing, took the cream off, and she put it in cream cans and when I was small a truck came around and picked it up, then a postcard check would show up in the mail.  We fed the extra skim milk to calves we bought, or pigs, and my sister and I went to college off a baby calf we bought each year.  Started young.  My mom sent 2 gallons of milk back to college with me after trips home.

[isawlogs]

Oh those separators .. that brings a memory back .. I was little when I first recollect being the motor for that .  Once you had momemtum going it was kinda ok ....
It was a nice job, well only nice thing about it was that I was besides my grandpa, and he would always have a story to tell . We would also have first go at the cream once finished ,that was good too  :D
Churning (sp) the butter was another favorite job my grandma was notorious for giving out  : Where not any volunteers for that ... you had to ern it    Having most of her grand kids there for summer .. it was not hard for her to find a churner .  :P