How you first started milking.

[jimmer]

if you came here looking ,had an ounce of common sense and took to the parlour ,i would have you milking on your own after two milkings
milking isnt rocket science just common sense

 

[aggravated farmer]

if you came here looking ,had an ounce of common sense and took to the parlour ,i would have you milking on your own after two milkings
milking isnt rocket science just common sense

Some make it as difficult as rocket science

 

[jimmer]

Some make it as difficult as rocket science

true

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

I don't care how much common sense they've got, if they know nothing about cows they won't be left in charge of mine after 2 milkings.

 

[jimmer]

I don't care how much common sense they've got, if they know nothing about cows they won't be left in charge of mine after 2 milkings.

i milk every morning so would pick up any thing wrong then

i can usually tell pretty quick if someone is capable or not

 

[Cow Whisperer]

Have you heard of WWOOF? (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms). We had a wwoofer (no previous farming experience) come to us for 6 months to get used to milking, being round cows, and general farm experience. He left us at the end of the 6 months to walk straight into a proper herdsman job on a 300 cow dairy farm - he's still there more than 2 yrs later. An unusual route into the job, but it worked.

 

[Shotgun96]

I was in the same situation as you, I just asked around and got a Saturday and Sunday job just doing general farm work. I started milking for free and was trained up by two very good dairymen. If your passionate about it start learning about dairy cows e.g. what are signs of mastitis and how to treat it. Also ask questions when milking show your keen and you wont be long on getting a full time paid job.
Gid Luck

 

[Pasty]

First lesson. Develop a sixth sense for rising tails. After a few years you can sense them even if you are the other end of the parlour facing the opposite way.

 

[Welsh Farmer]

if you came here looking ,had an ounce of common sense and took to the parlour ,i would have you milking on your own after two milkings .....

I'm shocked by that ..... not in a nasty way .... just shocked that you would leave someone who gives an honest warning of ...."bearing In mind I've got no experience at all." ... in charge of your cows and milking after just two go's at it; And then add on to that the lad is still a teenager. I absolutely don't knock teenagers, especially one keen to learn and who is not a know-it-all because such enthusiasm is to be encouraged and supported .... but it's a massive responsibility for one so young and with no experience IMO.

I look back to my days starting off with milking as a teenager (whereby I had no real husbandry skills or technical knowledge) and there was no way that I would have been capable of handling a herd on my own after just two milkings .... and I like to think I possessed both common sense and a natural skill with livestock. IMO the smaller herds require the greater attention to detail because you get the quirks of a particular cow holding the milk in one quarter or prone to kicking off the cluster if not removed quick enough and those sort of things etc etc. It may be pandering to a small herds needs but hey ho ... that's exactly what you can do over these very large herds.

I'd be VERY surprised if someone with no experience whatsoever could pick up all of that plus get to grips with the controls in two milkings. Or am I hopelessly out of touch with dairy herds of today

 

[Pasty]

Depends on the person. My dad was a farmer of 40 years before my brother and I took on the milking. We did a damn good job of it and got really good results for the time. We both dreaded dad having to come in and help. Cue shouting and sticks flying everywhere, shite up the walls, yields going down and cell counts going up. It was like clockwork and he couldn't see it. He couldn't just open the door and let the cows work out their own order of coming in, maybe costing 2 minutes during which he could have been attending to something else. He had to get out there in the collecting yard and start screaming like a f'ing maniac, driving cows in all out of order and giving them a good hiding too. If you ever said anything you would get 'When you've been farming for 40 years, you can tell me what to do' and so on.

Brought it all back the other day when a neighbour's sheep got into our field. My kids and I brought them all the way back to the boundary nice and quiet and steady and they get to the gate back into neighbours field. I'm telling my kids and nephew to stay nice and calm and once one braves it, the rest will follow. We just need to let them mill in the gateway for a bit. Cue dad charging up the field like a rabid zombie, waving his stick and shouting expletives. The 'final push' if you like. I didn't even try to stop them but it was a long walk back to start again and hope he might have learnt something. He didn't. Long day.

Some folk, no matter how young, have wisdom built in. Some never achieve it.

 

[Headless chicken]

I'm shocked by that ..... not in a nasty way .... just shocked that you would leave someone who gives an honest warning of ...."bearing In mind I've got no experience at all." ... in charge of your cows and milking after just two go's at it; And then add on to that the lad is still a teenager. I absolutely don't knock teenagers, especially one keen to learn and who is not a know-it-all because such enthusiasm is to be encouraged and supported .... but it's a massive responsibility for one so young and with no experience IMO.

I look back to my days starting off with milking as a teenager (whereby I had no real husbandry skills or technical knowledge) and there was no way that I would have been capable of handling a herd on my own after just two milkings .... and I like to think I possessed both common sense and a natural skill with livestock. IMO the smaller herds require the greater attention to detail because you get the quirks of a particular cow holding the milk in one quarter or prone to kicking off the cluster if not removed quick enough and those sort of things etc etc. It may be pandering to a small herds needs but hey ho ... that's exactly what you can do over these very large herds.

I'd be VERY surprised if someone with no experience whatsoever could pick up all of that plus get to grips with the controls in two milkings. Or am I hopelessly out of touch with dairy herds of today

I think milking has changed a great deal since then especially on some of the bigger farms. If jimmer has all the sick cows and dump cows in 1 group then I assume he would have help milking these. I think things are also a lot simpler now because of automation it takes some pressure off as you don't have to learn to turn this valve after to transfer milk etc you just milk.

 

[Blaithin]

Barring in mind I've never worked at a dairy - to me milking is the easy part. At the feedlot I could definitely train someone up on vaccinations and tagging and within two days not pay anymore attention to them. Implanting they were pickier....

BUT

Working the cattle? Hah!

Some people catch on really fast to moving cattle around and to be fair Dairy ladies are easier in some ways to move than pens of feedlot stuff but still, you CANNOT learn in two days how to effectively work with and around cattle. That requires an understanding of the flight points, their thinking and a build up of confidence. Doesn't matter if someone can stick a machine on an udder if they don't have the confidence to get in beside a beast the size of a cow and show her what they want. I don't care how tame the cow is, if she thinks she can push someone unexperienced around she's gonna do it just for a hobby. I've spent more time with people helping them just move cattle around so that they can build up confidence and the more they're around the animals the more they learn about healthy looks vs unhealthy looks etc. Even the most enthusiastic and willing person will fall short in this department until you help them become comfortable with it.

Sure you may trust someone to milk and I'm sure they'll milk fine. They may even be able to pick up on mastitis if you give them a list of things to look for although depending on their level of paranoia you may be called out for 10 times the amount of cattle necessary But if you want someone to learn the overall aspect of a job with cattle then you stick with them until they're comfortable. And comfortable doesn't mean walking around with a stick and hitting things because you don't know what they're doing. With this comfort will come better application of any knowledge they already have and what you teach them

I like the WWOOFer idea but it also isn't very hard here to get an ag job that will pay minimum wage if you're a teenager with no experience. But you be picky too @Farmboy1 and choose a place that will give you good, all around experience, not just stick you in a corner doing one thing. Whether you get paid or chose to donate your time get the most out of it that you can!

 

[mtx.jag]

Best of luck @Farmboy1 with finding somewhere to milk!! I was lucky enuf to get a few weekend milkings and shown the do's and dont's of milking.. with out this experiance i would'nt be where i am now!!

 

[Welsh Farmer]

I think milking has changed a great deal since then especially on some of the bigger farms. ........ I think things are also a lot simpler now because of automation it takes some pressure off as you don't have to learn to turn this valve after to transfer milk etc you just milk.

I suspected I might have been somewhat in the dark ages with my experience of milking .... a very diplomatic post @Headless chicken in confirming that for me Thank you for doing it so politely

 

[BELOWAVERAGE]

i milk every morning so would pick up any thing wrong then

i can usually tell pretty quick if someone is capable or not

Your probably right, a modern set up with a decent herd of cows and you'd be ok, very little interaction with the cows. where as here, medieval set up (you need to be constantly on your guard) and a herd of dodgy cows(due to my dodgy replacement policy) you would very quickly end up in a mess. But on the other hand this place is a good training ground.(on how not to do it)

 

[jimmer]

ok so perhaps i have a situation and parlour that is easy to get to grips with

press three buttons, put pipe on tank open the tank lever and milking can commence
press start on the key pad put the unit on let the acr do the rest, when all cows on that side are finished press the gate button to let them go
there are lights to indicate which cows are three quartered and on which one , a light flashes when a cow is down in yeild
there are rarely dump cows and if there are they are clearly marked with tail tapes and have lights on key pad to indicate

my phone is always on and am not usually very far away

mollycoddling someone is not always the best way to train them let them use their own initiative

 

[Bovine1251]

Depends on the person. My dad was a farmer of 40 years before my brother and I took on the milking. We did a damn good job of it and got really good results for the time. We both dreaded dad having to come in and help. Cue shouting and sticks flying everywhere, shite up the walls, yields going down and cell counts going up. It was like clockwork and he couldn't see it. He couldn't just open the door and let the cows work out their own order of coming in, maybe costing 2 minutes during which he could have been attending to something else. He had to get out there in the collecting yard and start screaming like a f'ing maniac, driving cows in all out of order and giving them a good hiding too. If you ever said anything you would get 'When you've been farming for 40 years, you can tell me what to do' and so on.

Brought it all back the other day when a neighbour's sheep got into our field. My kids and I brought them all the way back to the boundary nice and quiet and steady and they get to the gate back into neighbours field. I'm telling my kids and nephew to stay nice and calm and once one braves it, the rest will follow. We just need to let them mill in the gateway for a bit. Cue dad charging up the field like a rabid zombie, waving his stick and shouting expletives. The 'final push' if you like. I didn't even try to stop them but it was a long walk back to start again and hope he might have learnt something. He didn't. Long day.

Some folk, no matter how young, have wisdom built in. Some never achieve it.

I wish some people would just leave the cows those extra couple of minutes to find their own way in - you spend a few mornings letting them get used to it and then someone goes stomping into the waiting area and it's back to square one!