by Room One

Visit to a Dairy Farm

The poo and wee from the cows gets washed down this concrete ramp into the pond. The effluent then gets spread on the paddocks by the irrigators.

This is the track that the cows come down for milking. There are roads like this all over the farm. A worker goes and opens the gate and the cows come down the track. They will be waiting at the gate because their udders are full of milk and they know it is time to be milked. The worked doesn’t need to lead them because they have been trained and they know where to go.

This machine keeps the cows going forward by slowly coming up behind them. They can feel it on their back and this keeps them going.

This is where the cows wait to go onto the platform to get milked.

This is the rotating platform inside the milking shed that the cows go on to get milked. It holds 60 cows at a time.

This shows where the cows walk on to the rotating platform. Only one cow can go at a time.

The cows are waiting to walk onto the platform.

The rubber triangles make the cows legs slip apart so the workers can get between their legs to put the milking cups on.

The workers put the milking cups on and make sure the cows are safe.

The milking cups go on the cows udders to suck the milk out. They feel like a gentle vacuum cleaner.The milk goes down the pipe and into a giant tank where it is stored for collection.

This is the cows going around the platform. The blue paint means they are ready to go and see the bull, yellow means they have been introduced to the bull, green means they are pregnant and red-orange means they have it had a calf,

This is the tank where all the milk ends up. The small tank on the left is milk for the calves.

The worker feels the cows udder to see if any milk is left. If it empty they take off the milking cups and the cow leaves the platform. If the cow still has milk the worker puts a chain behind it’s legs so it can’t walk off and it goes around again.

After they have been milked the cows come down this ramp and go back to their paddock.

These calves are just a day old.

They are feed milk by a worker. The worker pours milk into the feeder and then they drink it.

These claves are a few weeks old. Next year they will be milking cows.

The cows get milked three times a day..

There are about 1400 cows on the farm.

A truck picks up the milk each day and it goes to a factory.

At the best time of year about 25 litres gets milked from each cow each day.

Between 15 and 25 litres is milked from each cow each day.

Between May and August the cows go to another farm for a holiday.

There are three workers on the farm and the farmer and his family.

The workers get up at 4am for the first milking and they are finished by 8am.Facts