The dairy animals are a big component to the farm as they provide milk for drinking and cheese-making. They also occupy a few hours of our time both morning and evening!
Maddy and I are just learning to do the actual milking, and there’s a bit of a trick to getting it just right. Every animal has different lengths and widths of their teats, along with different sized orifices so it takes individualized practice with each one to get it right. The general idea is to close off the top of the udder with your thumb, and firmly apply pressure flowing through each one of your fingers like the scale on a piano down to the base of the teat with your pinky. This motion is repeated over and over, with a hand on each teat, switching off in a melody. It’s important not to pull on the teats or they won’t like it, and to make sure you’re not putting too much squeezing pressure on the udder tissue. It’s also good to get every last drop of milk out in order to preserve the long-lasting health and production of the udder. When the milk stream starts to get down to a trickle, we take a break from the squeezing and give their udders little massages with the back of our hands. This imitates the head of the babies nuzzling them, and is my favorite part because it seems endearing and sweet. They usually have a bit thicker of a milk stream right after you do that too, so it seems as though they enjoy it. There’s certainly a melody about going through the whole process, and it’s a rather lovely time so I’m having fun getting into the rhythm of it.
In the morning, the goats get milked by the machine. They have more milk in the morning so it’s more efficient to do it that way. The machine is really easy to use, other than cleaning it at the end with a few different washes which I’m still getting used to since it’s a lot of steps. Basically for milking, the machine has tubes that are connected to an alluminum bin on one end, and have suction cups on the other. The cups just grab right on to the teats when you place them firmly there, and a section of the tube is clear so you can see when the milk is flowing nicely. After the milk turns to just a dribble, it’s time to take off the cups and massage the udders a little. The cups slide off pretty easily when you stick your thumb in between their teats and the cups edge, although sometimes the goats don’t like the feeling and stamp their feet a bit. While the machine is convenient, I do prefer hand milking as it feels more personal and I like to give the animals lots of touch.
Lyndal really loves each of her animals and it’s so inspiring to see the care she takes with each one during milking. The animals all love it too, they’re very loud, persistent, and eager to come in for their turn each morning and evening.
When I drink their milk, it’s another magical moment. I know that the milk has been loved, tenderly, and happily drawn out from happy creatures. It’s nothing like drinking hormone-injected, pasturized plastic-jugged milk that tastes factory made. It’s real, true milk, raw and straight from the source. It tastes of bliss, and I don’t know that I’ll be able to go back to drinking “normal” milk in the States as I’ve grown attached to the white, silky rich fluid that my new good friends provide.
