In the afternoon, the milking does not start until 4:30, but we get all the other chores done before when we get there are 2:45. We first let the girls out for some outside time and then one of us will clean their beds all out so they are ready to be rebedded after they are milked. There are other miscellaneous jobs to be done, like clean out Germaine the steer’s pen, and push the feed up in the barn with all the other cows and clean the babies' pen out. The babies really love attention so as soon as you walk in there you can hear them start frolicking around. Right now we have a baby calf named Pickles (cute, right?) in here and she likes to escape. We also have two older calves, Raleigh and Pterodactyl. Once all these jobs are done, we bring the girls back in and get everything ready for milking. We have to clean and sanitize all the equipment we use and set up the milk tank to make sure the milk goes into the tank properly. After all this is done and it is finally 4:30, we can start milking :D.
All of our cows have certain personalities and it did not take us long to figure out what some of these are. For instance, Blue is wicked cuddly and she just loves chin scratchies. Rutabaga loves to act like a dog and eat her food on her two front knees. It really is lots of fun getting to be around these animal and getting more and more comfortable with everyone. Right now, we have quite a few cows that are dried off, which means we have lots of BABIES coming soon!! This means that milking can usually get done in hour or a little less if you are really efficient. After each cow is milked, they are each given some clean, dry bedding so they can have a good sleep. After every cow is milked, we wash all the dishes and units and set up everything to be sanitized again. Before we leave we make sure the radio is turned down, the lights are off and the doors are down if its really cold (like tonight, brrrrrrr). We make sure everyone is happy and comfy so they can get be ready for the morning! Thanks for reading!
Lilla Tilton-Flood