Dairy

A dairy is a facility for the extraction and processing of animal milk (mostly from cows, sometimes from buffalo, sheep or goats) and other farm animals, for human consumption. A dairy farm produces milk and a dairy factory processes it into a variety of dairy products. more...

History

Historically, the milking and the processing took place in the same place: on a dairy farm.

People milked cows by hand, in some countries small numbers of cows are still milked by hand. Hand-milking is accomplished by grasping the teats (tits) in the hand and expressing milk by either squeezing the fingers, progressively, from the udder end to the tip or by squeezing the teat between thumb and index finger then moving the hand downward from udder towards the end of the teat. And repeat using both hands for speed. Both methods result in the milk that was trapped in the milk duct being squirted out the end into a bucket that is supported between the knees (or rests on the ground) of the milker who usually sits on a low stool to accomplish the milking task.

In early times the cow, or cows, would stand in the field or paddock while being milked. Young stock, heifers, would have to be trained to remain still to be milked. In many countries the cows were tethered to a post and milked. The problem with this method is that it still relies on quiet animals because the milking end of the cow is not restrained. In northern countries where cows are kept in barns in winter, and much of the rest of the year, they are still tethered only by the neck or head, particularly where they are kept in small numbers.

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