It’s June Dairy Month so let’s talk about how dairy cows are milked.
Many years ago milking was tedious; farmers milked cows by hand. The milk was collected in a bucket below the cow. As times changed, mechanization was necessary to produce more milk.
A mechanical bucket milker was created to make the milking process more efficient. The bucket’s teat cups attached to the cow’s teats. Early bucket milkers utilized suction as hoses were attached to the milker and created a vacuum affect with a pulsating tug-and-pull motion that simulated hand milking.
Today, milking units still utilize teat cups and pulsation but milk travels from the cow into the milking unit through a milking pipeline into a bulk tank for storage. Modern milking machines are more efficient and sanitary than bucket milkers. Some farms today utilize robots, or automatic milking systems, to collect milk from cows.
