Some notes penned by Percy Trollope, circa 1980:
Owing to high costs of milk production, farmers are obliged to keep more dairy cows. By producing more gallons of milk, the cost per gallon is less. The techniques of milking of the present time bears no relation to the era of the dairymaid and her three-legged milking stool and milk pail.
The first milking machines were introduced in 1895 but it was not until 1950 that farmers adopted milking machines as a necessity. Sixty to seventy cows were kept in herds on the larger farms. Four or five hand-milkers would be required to milk them. With the modern milking equipment one man can manage 80 to 100 cows. Most dairy “set-ups” are automatic, with individual feeding of concentrates, hot water washing pads for washing teats and udders, and milk pumped into bulk tanks which allow it to be cooled to 35 degrees Fahrenheit. A lorry tanker takes the milk to the dairy centres, this eliminating the use of churns. Most dairymen work six days a week, with one day off when a relief-milker does the work. Details and records are available to the relief milker. All the cows are numbered. He has only to glance at the individual details and records which are suspended at eye level in the milking parlour. The sterilisation of the plant is automatic by the use of water and chemicals. The teats of each cow are dipped in an iodine solution before the cows leave the milking parlour.
During the spring and summer months much attention is needed to provide the cows with fresh grass. The use of nitrogenous fertiliser plays a great part to ensure this. Pasture fields of new leys are divided into paddocks of about three acres. With the use of electric wire fencing the cows are allowed sufficient grass for each period between milkings. When a paddock is grazed off, it is treated with nitrogen fertiliser. After 24 days the paddocks can be grazed again, and so it goes on until the autumn. During the grazing period each cow has been allowed just over an acre of grazing.
During the winter months the cows are confined in yards, where they have access to self-feed silage. The clamp is protected with an electric wire, this allows a daily consumption, and also prevents the cows undermining the clamp. Sleeping quarters are provided nearby, this is a large open shed or a shed divided into cubicles.
Most dairy farmers rear their own replacements for the dairy herd, which is necessary owing to wastage. Cows that fail to conceive, low yielders of milk, and body ailments – such cows are eliminated from the herd. A profitable cow should have one calf every 12 months. Modern dairy farmers usually have an arrangement with their veterinary surgeon to carry out monthly fertility tests to ensure that the cows during the proper period of lactation are pregnant.