The drive to the dairy.

The key to milking is sanitation.  Everything from the milking machines, to the bedding after milking, to the cow’s teats has to be clean to ensure quality milk and to prevent infections in the animals such as mastitis (a common bacterial infection of the teat).  At Van Ryssel Dairy the cows are milked twice daily.  The morning milking is at 5:00 a.m. (and trust me, the cows think this is early too) and the afternoon is at 4:00 p.m..   There are approximately 125 milking cows in the herd and the parlor can milk 20 cows at once.  There are three groups based on there milking status: the high group, the low group, and the third group.  The third group is made up of “fresh” cows-ones that have just calved with relatively high milk production.  The high group makes up the majority of the milking herd and the cows have high production. If the fate of the cow is to remain in the milking herd, at about 60 days after calving the cow can be bred once again.  The low group has cows that are further along into their lactation period, and thus will have lower milk production.  Cows in the low group are likely pregnant and will eventually be dried off and are no longer apart of the milking herd until they calve.

The first step for milking is the sanitation process where a solution of hot water and detergent are flushed through the milking machines. The cows have to be brought from the barn to the parlor at this time, and their stalls are bedded while they are milked, which is what I normally do.  Like I have mentioned above, it is important that the bedding is clean and dry for when the cows lie down  because their teats remain open for about half an hour after being milked. Most cows by now know the routine, however some have a selective memory and need to be reminded.  For sanitation purposes the cows have there teats pre-dipped and post-dipped with iodine to prevent infection.  For most of the cows, the machines are put on “auto”, but there are some exceptions for those with abnormally placed, sized, or numbered teats and those cows are placed on a “manual” setting.  In this case, “one size fits all” doesn’t apply.

View of parlor.

Only one person does the milking.  Each milking machine consists of four vacuum suction-cups and has the ability to be maneuvered and manipulated into a comfortable position by the milker onto the teats.  If the machines are set to auto, they will fall off the cow automatically when milking is complete.

Milking machine with four suction cups.

Some of the cows coming into the parlor have red bands around their legs.  This indicates that milk from these cows cannot enter the bulk tank because the animal is receiving treatment with drugs that have a specific withdrawl time.  It is extremely important the milker takes notice of these cows and removes the tubes going into the bulk tank and connects them to a separate container, otherwise any milk previously in the tank is contaminated and no longer able to be sold. You might wonder why these cows with red bands are even still milked, however it is important that they are, especially if they are high producing because the pressure and discomfort the cow will experience in its udder.

The bulk tank

Every cow that is milked has a “responder” around its leg.  The responder is really a computer chip with the cow’s identification number that a sensor picks up in the parlor.  In addition, the responder records the amount the animal milks at that milking and acts as a pedometer to record the animal’s activity levels. An average quantity of milk produced by one animal at one milking is about 17-18 liters.  A pedometer is useful because by recording and monitoring how many steps the cows takes overtime, the information can be used to notify when the cow is in heat and can be bred.

Milking cow sporting a responder.

From the parlor, the milk travels into the bulk tank where it is stored.  Every second day the milk truck arrives on farm to collect the milk.  At this time, there is any where from approximately 6000-7000 liters of milk in the bulk tank depending on factors such as how many total cows are being milked or how many red-banded cows there are.

The dairy industry in Canada differs from the American dairy industry in that Canada uses a quota system.  This means the milk produced by all farms in the area is transported to the same place and from there is distributed to the major dairy companies for further processing whether it be for cheese, yoghurt, cream, ice-cream, or simply milk.