Producing quality milk starts with healthy cows. Farmers provide comfortable housing, nutritious feed, preventive health care programs, and sanitary milking procedures to keep their cows healthy.

Only female cows are milked, and they can only be milked once they have had their first calf. That’s when they produce milk – this is when you say a cow is lactating.

The first five days after she delivers her calf she produces special milk called beestings or colostrum. That milk is only for the calf and it gives it all the nutrition and protection it needs against disease.

After five days the cow produces normal milk and the milking process starts. The cows are milked three to four times a day, depending on the amount of milk she produces.

After the birth the cows are milked 2 –3 times a day from the day 6 to day 300. She then rests for 60-90 days before she has another calf and the cycle starts once more. A healthy cow will have 8 such cycles in her lifetime.

In the old days, cows were milked by hand. Their hind legs were tied with a fetter or rope to prevent the cow from kicking the bucket over and the cow’s teats were covered in a cream to prevent them becoming raw and tender. Ouch!

Fast Fact: A healthy cow can produce up to 65 litres of milk a day.

The teats are washed before milking. As soon as the udder is washed a message is sent from a small gland in the cow’s ear (the pituitary gland) to the udder and it releases milk. We says the cow ‘lets down’ the milk, meaning its ready to release its milk.

These days it is all done by sophisticated milking machines make the processing of milk quicker and more hygienic. The rubber teats create a sucking sensation that is almost the same as when a calf drinks from its mother.

Four rubber suckers attach the modern milking machine to the cow’s teats. The first milk is tested for any infections. If the milk is healthy the teats then create a sucking action almost the same as a calf drinking. The milk flows through the tubes into a glass measuring flask and each cow’s production is carefully monitored. The milk then moves into very fine filters to remove impurities before it is pumped into stainless steel tanks and cooled. Milk is collected from farms every 2 days and moved to the dairy. Laboratory tests check milk samples for bacteria or traces of antibiotics.

	When is a teat unhealthy?
	If there are small little grains resembling mealie meal, it may mean the cow has an infection called mastitis. Mastitis is an infection of the udder caused by an injury. If the cow has mastitis it will not be milked before the infection clears up.

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