They Tell Me That Milking Goats and Cows Sideways is Usually How It’s Done
By Jeff Elder, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.
Feb. 8–Q. Why are cows milked from the side and goats from the back? — Eileen Smith
They aren’t.
Let’s us city kids head out to the farm today. (Better go change your shoes.)
“You could milk a goat from the back,” says Joyce Dezio, who’s been raising and milking goats for 30 years. “But I don’t know why you would.”
At her farm in Shiloh, near Rutherfordton, Dezio has French alpine goats, including Sarah, Sunflower and Sweet Pea II.
Sweat Pea the first was a top milker, but “the coyotes killed her.” Now Dezio has Molly, a great Pyrenees sheep dog, to look after her goats. “It’s in her blood.”
This backward thinking about goat milking might come from the fact that, when it comes to teats, cows have a four-pack and goats have a two-pack. Because of this layout, you could grab ahold of both goat spouts from the back. But nobody I talked to does. “You just milk them from the side, same as a cow,” points out Judith Saul. She keeps goats at her mini-farm near Lake Lure in Rutherford County.
What ya do to milk a goat is, you bring one up on a milking stand away from the other goats. (Elsewise they get curious and start butting in.) You stick her head through a stanchion, and give her something to eat while you’re milking her.
Dairy farmers don’t milk cows by hand too much anymore.
“I’m really, really thankful that we don’t have to do that,” says Jimmy Gray, who runs Grayhouse Farms in western Iredell County with his dad and brother.
Grayhouse has 300 Holstein cows (those stylish black and white ones) that get milked three times a day, so hand milking would be quite a chore. Gray might milk a cow by hand once a month or so, if she’s having a milking problem he wants to get a grip on. (He does, however, do a good bit of artificial inseminating, which we discussed for a while.)
There are many reasons not to milk a cow from the back, Gray points out. You couldn’t reach the teats very easily, at least the front ones, as we said. “And a 1,300-pound cow processes a lot of feed,” Gray says. “See where I’m going with this?”
Don’t stand behind the cow. Even though you did change your shoes.
Gray points out that many milking systems do connect to cows from the back these days, which saves space.
At some point in a column like this, we gotta address this question: Do these animals get eaten? The answer is, yes.
The fast-food places buy the dairy cows when they’re done as milkers. The lean beef makes for good burgers. As for goats, the meat from a young male tastes like “really, really good beef,” Dezio says.
Running a mini-farm on a couple acres is a real treat, says Saul, a city kid who moved out to the country 10 years ago. She gets about a gallon of milk a day from her goats, and makes 10 kinds of cheese, yogurt, even paint.
On the other milking hand, Gray, 45, grew up at Grayhouse Farms, which has been around since 1955.
“Growing up, north Mecklenburg was a pretty strong dairy community,” he says. “North Carolinians drank N.C. milk. That’s what you got at the grocery.” Today, Grayhouse Farms milk goes into a cooperative, and is sold around the Southeast.
Each night before bed, Gray has a little milk and ice cream. (Dairy farmers still turn in and get up early.) “It’s a great life. There won’t be anymore farms around here, though. Land just costs too much.”
Butt, the mini-farms can still have a go-at it.
Today’s fascinating factoid
Quick: Are there more single guys out there, or more single women? There are more single women. (“Of course there are!” groans a chorus of single women. Happy Valentine’s Day, ladies.) There are 86 unmarried men age 15 and older for every 100 unmarried women in the United States, according to the Census Bureau.
‘Who Am I This Week’ winner
On Sunday we gave you these clues toward naming our mystery person: I am 52 years old — but people used to think 24 when watching me. (That’s not my unit anymore.) You’re in good hands watching my TV commercials. The answer? Actor Dennis Haysbert of “24,”"The Unit” and Allstate insurance commercials. Our winner? Christian Nuccio of Charlotte.
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GOT A QUESTION?
E-mail Jeff Elder at glad@charlotteobserver.com or call him at 704-358-5032.
Glad You Asked Jeff
Elder
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