|
|
Life
on the dairy farm
| This morning we woke up at 5 am and downed
our coffee as dawn began to break. By 5:30 Bombero, Eric,
and I were walking the 1/2 mile to the Lecheria for the
morning milking. Bombero and his extended family have
a dairy farm and 40 vacas (cows). The cows are milked
twice a day, one around 5 AM and then again around 2 PM.
Bombero was born on this farm and the morning milking
is as much a part of his daily routine as brushing his
teeth. However, for Eric and I this milking was a whole
other story. |
|
|
|
We were ready for 3rd round of milking.
Our first job was to herd the cows in from the fields
and then the real work began. Bombero has several milkers,
machines that use compressed air to milk the cows automatically.
However, most of the cows are milked by hand. After each
cow is tied so it can not walk away while you are milking
it we were given a small stool and a metal pale and sent
to work. Each cow will produce about 1 gallon of milk
for each milking. |
| Today Frosty and I are very proud of ourselves
because we were able to milk 3 cows! By the end of our
3rd cow I felt like a real daily farmer. I was in the
zone, humming to the steady beat made by the milk hitting
the pale. Then Bombero joined me to help me finish. He
took hold of the cows teets and the milk flowed effortlessly
into the pale. He must have milked 6 or 7 cows in the
time that it took Frosty and I to milk 3. It was amazing
to watch him move effortlessly around the barn working
with the cows. |
|
After the milk was collected we loaded all of the milk, about
50 liters, into the back of a truck and drove it to the main
holding tank. Frosty and I jostled around in the back of the
truck feeling like real farmers as we bounced down the rocky
road. After we deposited the warm milk into the refrigerated
holding take our work was done and we headed back to the house
for a hearty farmers breakfast.
Keep Exploring,
Dave
|
