Milking Machines Are Not Easy

With a new cow coming, we decided to buy a milking machine.  I've heard so many people say how much they prefer them and I don't think I have the strength to milk two cows.  We did lots of research and last week we dropped $1,400 on a system from portablemilkers.com.  It's a NuPulse which is supposed to easy on the cow and easy to maintain.

When it arrived our elation turned to tension.  After reading through the papers they sent, we still didn't know how to put it together.  We called the people we bought it from and they walked us through it.

Then we had to figure out how to clean and sanitize the thing.  Several hours later we had the machine put together, cleaning figured out, and we thought we were ready.  We'd watched a video on youtube and it looked easy.   We headed out to Christina.

Things went badly.  When we turned on the machine Christina jumped hard, then I couldn't quite hold all those milk cups in my hand.  I finally got one on her and she jumped away.  The cow on the video had a tiny little udder while Christina's udder is mature and hangs down.  There was no room to work down there and I couldn't see what I was doing.  I knelt down to try again.  This time, after getting one on and accidentally twisting it, Christina's leg flashed up and I was back against the wall before I knew what happened.  But she kicked like our Christina, I wasn't hurt one bit. We turned the thing off and hand milked.

Several hours later my heart rate had normalized and I had watched several youtube videos to figure out other ways to attach those cups.  The best video was made by kids, wouldn't you know (watch pt. 1 and pt. 2).

This morning we headed out with a new plan.  First, my husband rigged up a place for the pump to sit outside to reduce the noise.   While I washed Christina, we ran the pump so she could get used to the sound. 

Then we put a towel down so I wasn't trying so hard to avoid the floor.  I held the claw and two cups in one hand while my husband and I each took the others.  After getting those on, we each grabbed another one and got those on. 

As we stood back, hands free, we told Christina, "you're doing it!"  Wa hoo!!  She stood there and didn't seem to mind the sucking action.  She was machine-milked for most of her life, after all.  Look at how that claw hangs way down, almost touching the floor.  Milk was squiring into the bucket so fast.  Within maybe 4 or 5 minutes, the flow slowed way down.  We let it go another minute or two (we probably shouldn't have), and then turned the machine off.  The cups slid gently off her teets.

Christina tolerated all of this, but she wasn't happy.  She jumped as we got her ready.  She stood with her head down, pulling back on her stanchion.  When we poured the milk, we found she gave noticeably less than normal — she typically gives 2.5-3 gallons in the morning and this morning only gave 2 gallons.  We figure her stress prevented a full letdown.

Then we came inside to start the cleaning process.  I've read most people do it in 5-10 minutes.  It took us closer to 20-25. 

In the end, the whole process took us twice as long as hand milking, but we were stumbling at every step and we'll get much faster quickly.  And I don't have to stretch out my hands, trying to stave off carpel tunnel.

Happy Mardi Gras!  By Easter we'll have this all figured out.