Ever wonder where milk comes from? Or how about that cheese or yogurt that sitting on the shelves at the grocery store. Well in these next few steps, I will have showed you how to milk a cow.

Step 1: Supplies

Before milking can start, everyone first needs to make sure their gloves are on, the dipper bottles are filled with correct sanitation fluids, the cows are loaded into the parlor and both entrance and exit gates are closed. for the sanitation fluids, there are two types. One that will be put on the teats before milking to help clean them and open them up. The other one will be put on after milking to close them back up. Also have ready towels to wipe off the pre-dip with, (you will probably need quite a few,) and make sure there is a full bottle of oxytocin ready for when a cow needs a shot. That will be talked about in the following paragraphs

Step 2: Loading the Parlor/ Milk Buckets

Step 1- After getting both sides of the parlor loaded and making sure both end gates are closed, make sure and check the cows' feet for any bands. we use red bands and silver duct tape. The red bands mean they have been given antibiotics so their milk goes into buckets which later gets bottle fed to the bull calves or angus heifer calves. If they do have red bands grab the milk bucket and the additional sucker and set it by that cow. I will discuss later how to set that bucket up so it can milk to red banded cow. the duct tape means they don't start lactating right away so they are given a 2cc shot of oxytocin to help them to start lactating.

Step 3: Dipping the Cows

Step 2- Now that the cows are loaded and someone has made sure there were no bands on their feet, begin dipping the teats. First grab the pre dip which in our dairy is in the blue dipper bottle. This will help sanitize the teats and open them up. After grabbing the dipper walk over to the cow and give each teat a few tugs so that milking starts coming out, (but watch out as some of the cows tend to get jumpy and kick their legs up.) Do this to make sure the cow doesn't have mastitis ( looks like curdled milk inmost cases.) If one of the teats do have mastitis, keep tugging on that teat till it clears up and normal milk comes out. After that is done dip each teat with the dipper. Let it sit and go do the other cows in that line. Once all the cows have been dipped go back to the first cow and wipe off each teat with the pater towels that are in the parlor. Each cow will get its own towel for sanitation purposes.

Step 4: Red Bans

Step 2A- This step is ONLY for cows that have red bands on their feet. Grab the silver milk bucket and the extra milker that should be attached to it. Bring it over to the cow that has the band on it. Once step 2 has been completed, set up the milk bucket there are 3 hoses that need to be attached to the bucket and milker. One hose is the air that will help suck the milk into the bucket, that will be a black hose just hanging near the other milkers it will have a silver clamp on it. Once the hose is on the milk bucket release that clamp. Next, the milker hose should already be on the bucket. That hose will be the one that gets the milk to the bucket. After those two hoses are on the bucket take the clear double hose off the other milker and put it on the extra milker that is connected tot eh bucket making sure the red line is on top. Now put the milker on the red-banded cow and get the bull and angus heifer calves milk for their bottles. They get the "bad" milk because the Holstein heifer calves need more probiotics, that the milk replacer offers them. So there for they can get all the antibodies they need so when it comes time they can be milked to.

Step 5: Putting the Milkers On

Step 3- Once all the cows' teats have been cleaned start putting the milkers on. Push the attach/detach button so it lets the milkers down. Next one by one put the milkers on each teat. After they are all on push the manual button till the orange like comes on. this will ensure the milker doesn't come off when the red "no milk" light comes on. Cuase normally more times then not there will be quite a bit more milk that come out if the milker gets pulled down ever so slightly.

Step 6: Finishing Up/ Post Dip

Step 4- The last and final step, once all there is no more mok coming out, push the attach/detach button again and it will pull the milker off the teats. Next, grab the post-dip (in the dairy I work at that would be the green bottle) and dip each teat to help close them up till next milking. Now that the cow is done milking, grab some bleach water and dip the milkers into it to sanitize them for the next cow. Once all the cows are done being milked in that row push the open exit button and let them out to go eat and lay down till morning when they will be milked again.