How long does it take you to milk?

[Joey Wahoo]

We are about to get a family milk cow. I haven't milked a cow since I was a kid 30+ years ago. The wife just asked me how long it takes to milk, and I honestly couldn't answer the question.

Would appreciate your answers. We're looking to get a Jersey that we'll milk twice a day.

thanks a bunch

[francismilker]

If you get a cow that will easily let her milk down, it could take as little as 20 minutes. I've got one cow that doesn't "give" a drop of milk. (I have to "take" every last drop.) We, (my wife and I) spend more time cleaning, dipping, and straining than we actually do milking. It also depends on how heavy a producer you get. Some have better teats for milkflow than others do. It all depends.

[jerzeygurl]

i can leave the kitchen get all my winter duds on walk out to barn get feed, get cow up, milk her let her out get back to garage, unsuit and back in kitchen in half an hour,

[Haggis]

I leave the house at 9:00 A.M., walk 200 feet to the barn, feed my geese, give a scoop of grain to my Jersey/Devon steer, give scoop of grain to my Jersey/Holstein bull calf, feed and milk Tulip, give a scoop of grain to Lucy, water the steer and the bull, and I'm back in the house with the milk at 9:20 A.M..

I have a milking machine. :baby04: Like veryone else, the getting of things together, the preparation of the cow for milking, and the clean up of the equipment after is where the time is spent. Herself does the clean up of the milking equipment because; she wants things clean.

[linn]

It depends on whether you are using a machine or not. I use my milking machine when my cow is in full production; but when her production slows down in the winter I milk by hand. Getting the machine ready and thoroughly cleaning it after milking can take about as long as it does to hand milk. The machine will milk my cow out in 3-4 minutes. When I hand milk it takes me about 10- 15 minutes after I get the feed in and my cow prepped for milking. It takes longer to milk by hand at first because you're not used to it and your arm and hand muscles are not toned for milking. Don't get discouraged if it takes a while at first. You get better the more practice you have.

[Horace Baker]

For hand milking, I figure roughly 1 minute/pound. Some cows are really fast and will milk out faster.

[uncle Will in In.]

I haven't milked in years. I do remamber my stepdad and I milking 7 or 8 cows when I was a kid. The Lone Ranger came on the radio at 6:30 every week night. Some busy evenings we wouldn't get the cows in the barn until after 6.
My stepdad loved to listen to the Lone Ranger. If we were running behind, we'd purt near tear them cows tits off to make it, but we nearly always did.
Setting a time to milk a cow has so many things that would make a difference that it's hard to set an amount of time needed. Anytime it takes over 15 minutes however, there is either a problem with the cow or the person milking. It takes time to get the muscles in your fore arms toughened up.

[Haggis]

Originally Posted by uncle Will in In.

Anytime it takes over 15 minutes however, there is either a problem with the cow or the person milking. It takes time to get the muscles in your fore arms toughened up.

Ain't it the truth? Ol' bossy comes in in a mood and it's gonna take a while, or she has scratched a teat and doesn't want it touched, or Farmer Haggis just mashed a finger under a hammer and can't squeaze just so.

On toughening up muscles; I agree, knowing how to milk isn't even the half of it; spend two months with the house cow dry, and two or three months again getting to where it doesn't hurt to milk after she freshens; then a body gets older and arthritis kicks in...etc.

Of course, that cold glass of buttermilk with the evening meal makes it all worth while.