The Modern Amish

By special request, today’s farming tip focuses on milking your cow. From the National Mastitis Council’s list of milking tips, our tip today extols the benefits of teat massage.

• Good Massage Increases Production - When teats and the lower part of the udder are massaged, a signal is sent to the brain which secretes the milk letdown hormone, oxytocin, into the blood stream. The hormone is then carried to the udder where it acts on muscle cells to “squeeze” milk out of the milk-secreting tissue. Massage of all teats is better than massage of only one or two teats and physically squeezing each teat will reduce the amount of milk left in the udder at the end of milking. Large amounts of milk left in the udder increase frequency of clinical mastitis in infected quarters.

You can’t have good quarters with infected quarters.  I think the less said here the better.  Happy farming!