When Dad quit milking

Dad worked as a mechanic at local farm implement dealer, farmed part time as he could. Must have a dozen cows at most in mid 50's. Milk cans set out at the end of the lane for the milk truck to pick up. Prety crude in most aspects. 1938 Oliver 70 running an old Papec hammermill by belt pulley. I guess must have been late 50's when everyone had to go to bulk tank?? After that I milked a cow by hand for our use for a little while. Sorry guys, wife is working at the hospital, I'm sitting here by myself on this Saturday night thinking about childhood.

The good ole days..I tell my kids about how the most fun I had as a kid was before and after milking. Playing in the haybarn..no matter how cold it was outside...I don't miss pulling teats though...

Well Riverslim , I can feel for you. I can remember well the fun I had at the barn as a little kid while my dzd and older brothers milked cows. Dad quit when I was 9 , and I started working for a neighbour at 13. Knew I wanted to dairy, and started in on a rented farm 28 years ago. Just came in from night chores a while ago , hate tv and enjoy reading post from kindered spirits, while downing a cold spirit or two myself. Love the cows, and the warm comfort of the dairy barn as winter comes on . the smell of silage and sweet second cut hay , are things you either can"t get enough of , or can"t get away from fast enough.

You my brother are a kindred spirit. I can still smell the sweetness of walking into a barn with the lingering scent of silage and fresh bedding. My first barn was 33 cows in stanchions, then 102 cows under the pipeline. Oh the smells and sensations I miss.

dad sold milk in cans into the early 60's and milked until 99, even when 20 below the barn was always warm with 32 cows, I remember walking to the house and seeing the steam come out of the cupola and rise into the air, I never loved dairying but the barn seems lonely not being full of cows and used daily.

We still used the milk cans on occasion up until maybe 10 years ago. Once in a while the milk man would have troubles and we'd have to hold our milk for 3 days, or the cows would suddenly fill the bulk tank and we had to get out the cans to hold the extra milk.

Never had issues with it, longest it would be in the cans was 2-3 hours while waiting for the milk man to come. Since then the heard has shrunk some and the milk man has become much more reliable. Comes every other day, rain or shine, hunting or no hunting.

Donovan from Wisconsin

My dad milked one cow for our own use when I was a kid. He wouldn't let me crank the separator cause he didn't think I'd run it the right speed. I did have to crank the butter churn on saturday mornings. Boring! The reward was the sweet buttermilk.

The cow was a guernsey so we had plenty of cream, which was fine with me cause I loved the stuff. I was growing so fast I couldn't get fat if I tried. This cream was the real McCoy, so thick it'd glue the Cheerios together. I'd mix up a batch of whipped cream, the real stuff, and sit and eat it. The resulting bellyache was worth it.

Marilyn grew up milking 100 cows along with her brothers in a stanchion barn, so today she won't even look at a cow. There were too many times getting stepped on, kicked, squeezed between cows, the flying wet tail,you know the rest. Jim

milking cows wasn't the bad part it was all the stuff that came with it.
i hated feeding calves and cleaning calf pens.
every once in a while you always had a hammer head that would mess up no matter what you were doing.

Worked as salesman selling farm machinery in the 1960s and 70s. In wintertime i use to call on my dairy farmers on real cold day and help them with their chores it was far better than try ing to sell machinery to an arable farmer in the middle of a field. MJ

My family moved onto the farm in 1949 milked 13 cows
put corn silage in an Octagon silo.I used to throw
it out with a fork. Put up hay with a NI Hayloader
The Vacume pump hung from a track behind the cows
and the milker sat between two cows and milked two
into the same large bucket. Had a radio from a 1949
Buick used to listen to Gunsmoke, The Lone Ranger,
and The Cisco Kid. at night milking.

Some fond memories of hauling cans, Had to use the Massey 65 with a two wheel wagon hooked to the "fordbar" to get the milk to the end of the driveway. When I pulled the cans to the end of the wagon, the wagon flipped up and I lost two days of milk.

My dad started milking in about '49, milk cans on a stand at the end of the driveway. We shipped to Darigold- the driver was a real sour old guy, and my mispronunciation of "Daddy-goat man" always amused my folks. In those days, you could order butter, etc. and he would bring it when he delivered- he was never very gracious about it.

Went to "Grade A" (bulk tank) in about '52 or '53. Dad was a carpenter, and milked in the morning, then to work- usually had a hired man to work the night milking. Most often a high school kid, who lived with us. We got decent production, got up to 40 or so cows at one point, but never enough money in it that he could quit working off-farm. Finally gave it up in about '62.

I liked everything about it except milking. Mom wanted me to be a rocket scientist, so was happy that we quit before I got old enough to want to get into it.

Hi guys'
I remember those smells and sounds from the barn. I liked to go feed the young stock after milking and lay on the hay with the dog and listen to the cattle munching and pushing the hay around. Hear the staunchon chains from the milk cows just around the corner and the rain tapping on the metal roof. Feel the contentedness of the cattle as they eat and lay down. Hear the waterbowls going here and there. Sometimes fall asleep on the hay.
Those were the good old days. Jim Will

thanks Jim, you sure can paint a scene with your words.

I miss it all, even the bad times, we quit milking in 1994 and sold the farm in 99

Dad and grandad had milked together for decades, as dad said his dad said his dad, my great grandad quit milking as soon as his son, my grandad could do it. In the early, mid fifties, mom started me out on the seperator. I was too little to start it for a while, but she would get it started, then when the bell quit ringing on the handle, I would take over, and hel be raised if that bell started up again. Well, then grandad got to old to milk, and died a few years later, and I carried the milk from the barn to the house while my younger brother took over my seperator job. Then I graduated to milking. By the way, I seem to remember that it seemed like it was a mile from the house to the yard light, then another mile to the house, especially when the ceyotes were howling, or Id see an owl or a bat cross the light. So me and dad milked and my brother ran the seperator. BUT when he got old enough to milk, dad bought a new flat belt Wards electric seperator. I couldnt understand why the motor didnt burn up starting up that slow. We three around 10?12 cowsk man would come to the house walk where we had the milk cans ready for him, big 10 gal for the milk, and thee 5s for the cream. I think we had 4 10s and 2 5s, but im not for sure, nor am I sure how often in the week he came, BUT, I do know we had the biggest milk check on the route, A fact mom mentioned many times as told by the delivery guy. He also delivered the milk check if memory serves me rightly. Dad had an 48 H Farmall by that time, and a new Wards hammermill. It was piped through a tinned up wndow with a pane missing, and the funnel was inside up in a made up bin inside the hay loft. When dad ground corn, there was dust up there on everything. Well, once, a hammer came loose and went half inside and half out the pipe, and dad quit grinding. That also happened at the same time nearly as when they told us we had to go electric. Dad tried to find some cheap bucket milkers, but couldnt finds any, and finally sold all but 2/3 cows we kept for milk. He had had a pit dut for silage, and used it one year, and that was that. The pit lasted for 20 yrs more b efore it got filled up. Few people went big with electric milking, But, after awhile. they started lowering and lowering the price paid for milk, and only those with big farms who could have bigger herds held on. I had an aunt that ran quernseys, and an uncle that had holsteins and they died rich for the times,.

My Dad quit farmimg in the early 60"s when I was 3 or 4. I can just remember a few things about the barn at the home place even though it was close to 50 years ago....probably had something to do with my decision to work for a mixed (dairy/hogs/beef)operation starting in the late 70"s.Best memories there was on a miserable late fall night when it was raining but everything was warm and comfy in the cow barn... not so much fun when it was 90+ and the cows were "edgy" with sunburned udders. BTW the last few years Dad milked he was working a 3-11 shift. He milked cows at noon and midnight I don"t know how he did that! Bob

Never milked, but sitting here this evening I remember why I love the farm and the cows, even claving in the cold mud all week. There is nothing like the sound and smell of the feedlot. Little calves bawling the sweet smell of hay in the feeders even the manure as bad as it sounds is what keeps me tickin.

Aah, the flying wet tail. Now THAT brings back unpleasant memories.

Gee, Jim, i had a wet feeling in my eyes, from reading those words!
I used to spend summers on my Grand-dads farm, when i was a young kid. And you saying about the smells and sounds in the barn, while lying in the hay mow, brought everything back!
I'm 85 YOA, and live near town. The newbies are building up all of the farm lands here. We used to hunt here, but ya can't swing a stick without hitting some yuppie! And, the SUVs are running rampant on the roads-none of the drivers can read speed limit signs, nor stop signs, and they gripe about leaf blowers, and lawn tractors, unless it is their own stuff!
Yep--time lurches on!