On my second trip to the dairy, I was determined to master the art of “stripping out”. The first time I went to the dairy, I had such trouble with this. It seemed that every cow I got was completely unwilling to let-down so that I could strip her out. There truly is a skill to milking cows by hand, and so far my skills were lacking immensely.
But this time I was determined. I tried different techniques, one handed, two handed, two fingers, four fingers, and every combination in between. Finally I seemed to find a happy medium that worked for most of the cows that came through, and I was so glad I did, for once I was not the last one to complete the milking!
Being in the parlor, sunken beneath the feet of the cows, you really become aware of the size of Holsteins. Not only are they big, but they are tall. They look like the Shaquille O’Neil of the cattle world. On my second trip out to the dairy, I had more time to look around and observe because I already knew what I was supposed to be doing. From the underside of a Holstein, you can see these massive arteries leading to the udder, and the tendons and muscles holding up the udder are so strong. Being that close to these animals really made me understand what a physical demand it is on these animals to produce so much milk and sustain such a large udder.
Once milking was finished, we got to feed the babies once again. They are growing like crazy, just two weeks ago they were so small and now they are almost twice their size! It is so exciting and amazing to see that one day they will be as big as the full grown Holsteins I spent most of the day milking.
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