From cow to truck--how the milk gets to us
Above left: The milking parlor is called a "double-three herringbone"--with three cows on each side and the farmer in the middle.
Above center: Three cows stand munching grain before the milking machine is attached to their udders.
Above right: While three cows are milked, another three are brought into the parlor on the other side.
I happened to have the camera at the barn this morning, so I thought I would show you where our cows get milked and how the milk travels from the cow to the bulk tank where it is stored until the milk truck picks it up.
We milk in a double-three herringbone parlor. This means that we put three cows on each side of the "pit", and we stand in the pit while we milk the cows. "Herringbone" refers to the configuration of the stalls in the parlor that the cows stand inside while being milked. We milk with three milking machines, swinging them from one side to the other to milk the cows on either side.
The cows enter the parlor, are washed and prepped for milking as they eat their grain out of the mangers. After waiting 60-90 seconds, we attach the milking machines. As these three cows are being milked, we bring in the next three to be prepped and fed. Once the cows being milked are done, we swing the machines over to the prepped and waiting cows, and let the just-milked cows out of the parlor.
The milk travels by vacumn through the stainless steel pipeline to the glass receiver jar in the milk house. The jar fills and pumps out to the bulk tank all through milking. The milk is stored in the 800-gallon bulk tank where it is cooled down to 37 degrees F. The milk is picked up every-other-day by a tractor-trailer tank truck. From here, the milk heads down the road, eventually to Stonyfield Farm to be made into delicious yogurt.
Got a question about how all this works, or anything else about organic dairy farming? Use the comment box below and I'll try to get you an answer here in the blog very soon.
--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont
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Below left: A vacuum tube sends the milk from the cow to a glass receiver jar.
Below center: The glass receiver jar fills, then sends the milk along to the bulk tank.
Below right: This 800-gallon tank cools the milk and stores it until the tanker truck comes to pick it up and deliver it.
Posted by Blogger Chris at June 29, 2005 04:07 PM
I have 2 questions--First, I read that on Wisconsin dairy farms the calf is taken away from its mother right after birth & that farm families have to get used to her crying each night for her baby. Is that also so here in VT?
And secondly, I read in our local paper (Caledonian Record) that cows are culled every 3-4 years in many cases. Isn't it difficult to send your cows to the slaughterhouse after you have raised & named them? It breaks my heart to see these lovely creatures, knowing this. Maybe the process is different from farmer to farmer or state to state? Thank you.
Jonathan Gates reports from Howmars Farm in Franklin, Vermont.