LABOUR OF MILKING

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24275, 16 May 1942, Page 4

LABOUR OF MILKING

Sir,—l have read with interest and amusement several glowing accounts in ki your columns of the surprising ability ■ of certain dairy farmers, milking heids fid either on their own or with youthfol I assistance. To crown these truly marvel, if lous achievements, E. W. Harris' coa. % tribution must exceed even tie most lelastic imagination. I feel surs tie I average dairy farmer must be wonder- • ing what he has been doing all these ® years when he reads of these gaper "milkers. I have been associated with big herds J (up to 110 cows) all my life ; and claim ? to know a little about milkmg, and ia 1 spite of all devices I have tried I have 1 not yet reached, or ever likely to, the I extraordinary agility of this mail and I nine years old boy. I suggest that the 1 following jobs done thoroughly would J take half an hour: —Washing separator, 1 vats, releaser, buckets, rubbers, teat § cups and pipes; washing down shea, yard and dairy, feeding calves and pip, re- 1 turning cows to paddocks, and'taking j cream to stand. Assuming the above J summary is correct to within five minutes either way, this then leaves approximately one hour to milk 60 cows, one cow a minute. No doubt the boy of nine would be a big help in " bailing up, roping, washing teats and releasing cowi through doors. Allowing 20 seconds per cow, this then leaves 40 seconds to relieve the cow of her milk. Undoubtedly a marvellous feat. Owhango. M. Lockteb.