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Dolly and Parton (heehee yes, Jack purposefully named the calf Parton and the kids don’t get the joke) have been with us for just over a month. Initially, they were one more fun pet to have on our farm. We’d been working on getting them used to us scratching their noses, wearing their halters, and working around them in the stalls while milking has been in the back of our minds. That is, afterall, why we bought a milk cow.
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| Jack’s one happy camper with his brand new milk pail. |
Dolly’s previous owners were incredibly helpful and sold us a good deal of the equipment we needed–the vaccum pump, the milker, gallons of udder wash and teat dip–but we still had to wait for a few buckets and strainers to arrive. Then, it was time to try our hand at milking.
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| Jack’s not quite sure we were doing it right. |
The first several attempts at milking were clumsy and took both of us to get Dolly put in her stansion and get the milker on. She wasn’t super happy with us, we had no idea what we were doing, and Parton was certainly vocal about his frustration.
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| Dolly asking Parton if he’s still there. |
Each time we milked, it got easier and we became more proficient. We found what worked for Dolly and though neither of us are experts, we can at least get the milker on by ourselves. The rest is sitting on a bucket and waiting for the milk to flow.
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| I think this strainer is going to come in handy when we tap our maple trees this winter. |
Once the milk is strained, it’s a matter of pasteurizing it and quickly cooling it, to keep any weird “cow-y” taste from ruining the milk.
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| Parton is happy to be back with his mama. |
So far, we’ve made butter and mozzarella cheese from the milk, on top of literally drinking gallons, but I’m hoping to branch out into cream cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, and of course, ice cream!
