We raised Holstein dairy cows. We had some bulls but mostly milking cows.
Once my parents were on their own, my Dad started out living at Tipton’s as a tenant farmer crop sharing. He was a good steward of the land rotating crops such as corn, pinto beans, sugar beets, alfalfa, potatoes and wheat or barley. There was all kinds of machinery in the yard for each crop took a little different harvesting equipment.
The milk barn was primitive but did the job. The cows waited in the correl set up to hold a number of cows. There was always an order to how they waited to be milked. Several loved to be milked first and would crowd into the front by the gate so they could walk into the barn.
I had my own cow. Her name was red. All the herd had black and white spots. My cow had red and white spots. I myself had fire-engine red hair. It was really long and Mom braided two long braids each day that hung down the middle of my back. I heard I was going to be named Penny, but evidently Joyce won out. Many family members called me red even if I didn’t like it much.
I didn’t know my cow Red very well. We weren’t fast friends. I just knew she was my cow.
When the gate was opened about 5 cows were ushered into the stantions. There was a grain storage bin in the second floor of the barn. We filled a bucket and poured a scoop of grain into each stantion. When the cows stuck their head in the wooden V-shaped apprentice, the wood well worn from years of use moved down holding the cows head in place. They were eager to eat some of that grain.
With a gentle pat on their rear, my Dad or brother Alan took a bucket of water and washed the cow’s utter. A strap was slung over their back to hold the big old shinny five gallon milking tank. The top of the tank had 4 suction cups that attached to the cows teats and started sucking away filling the tank with warm milk.
Once the milking machines were set up, multitasking begin. A curry comb was used especially around the cows hip to remove any crusty dirt they brought in from the corral. Invariably, the cow would take a dump while being milked. A big old shovel was used to clean that up and fling outside the barn.
When the milking was completed the suction cups fell off the cow resting on the tank. The tank was taken off the hook, strap removed and the stantion released so the cow could back out. The milk was emptied into a big shinny bucket close in the doorway to the other rooms. When I was old enough, my dad let me carry the bucket to the front room. I’m pretty sure someone else had to lift it up to the strainer where the milk ran down a cooling refrigerated sheet of ribbed metal into a tray the emptied into 25 gallon milk cans.