Tell me everything you know about milking cows at a large dairy...

[bufforp89]

Anyone work on/own a Dairy Farm? I am interviewing to be a milker next week... The guy gave me a basic run down of the duties...300 cows per shift....Tell me every thing you know about milking a large number of cows at a large dairy....Please?

 

[Delmar]

Quote:
I grew up on a dairy farm and spent 10 years of my adult life milking 120 Holsteins twice a day. I couldn't tell you everything I learned in 1 post. What do you want to know? Basically milking cows is all about getting to know the animals so you can recognize subtle changes in health and behavior so that you can recognize when an animal needs care. If you are good at taking care of animals you should be able to get good at this.

 

[piecemaker]

Lived and worked on a large dairy about 25 years ago. Sure it has changed alot. One thing I remember is always being damp. At least with other animals you can get some one to help out pretty easy if you need off but that is harder to do with dairy cows.

Good luck hope you like it
piecemaker

 

[amity3520]

I'm part of a class that milks about 100 cows and we each have a few shifts a week. It's a LOT of hard work, but eventually you get to know the cows and what each one is like. It's all about being able to recognize even subtle differences in behavior or health. You'll probably have a lot of early mornings and not a lot of time off, it can get very old after awhile unless you really love what you do.

 

[bufforp89]

I personally am pretty excited. At my job I am at now I have early mornings and work 6-7 days a week so wont make much of a difference to me. I will be getting about 40 hours per week and am guarenteed to have every single weekend off. There is a boy in high school who has been milking them weekends for over a year.

Best part is its right down the road...literally walking distance if the weather is nice....I like to imagine what I will save in gas....

 

[Delmar]

Quote:
So does that mean the job is yours? What are the milking times? How long does it take to milk 300 cows in the setup they have? We had a double four "herring bone" parlor and averaged about 40 cows/hour, but I'm guessing a 300 cow dairy has a faster setup.

 

[apdan]

My parent's have a 250 cow dairy with double 6, takes about 4 hours with set up and clean up. What questions did you have ??