Approximately how many 'squirts' from a cow's udder are needed to yield a gallon of milk?

sequoianoir

Research tends to suggest that this will vary to some degree depending upon the breed, age and udder capacity of the cow in question. Cows have to be milked twice a day and can produce up to 8 gallons of milk, 4 gallons at each milking which takes between 5 and 10 minutes if done by machine. This appears to be about half the time than when done by hand, presumably because all 4 teats are connected to a machine and it is difficult to simultaneously manipulate 4 teats when you only have two hands. Every cow fills her teat back up at a different rate depending upon how full the udder is so the 'squirt' frequency may need to be varied to obtain a full teat of milk or only a partial teat volume (little squirt?) may be available. Those wishing to learn to milk a cow by hand are often started on a mock up model cow rather than the real thing. The udder and teats being a rubber glove filled with 'white' water. Apparently the fingers are a very accurate representation of the real thing. Having measured the amount of water displaced by the middle finger of a large pair of rubber gloves I am pleased to announce that around 40 ml appears to be the 'squirt' volume. As to how many are needed to make a gallon? 1 UK gallon is a little over 4.5 litres so approximately 113 squirts are required. In the USA this would only be about 93 squirts since their gallon is only a little over 3.75 litres. Mar 06 03, 1:29 PM

serpa

345. See question #18. http://www.havemilk.com/article.asp?id=2153#question17 May 17 10, 1:01 PM