Hubby bought a Jersey cow at the sale barn a month after we moved onto our rundown farm. She birthed twins and we had to ask the neighbor how to milk her. After he finally stopped laughing, he showed us how to milk her by hand. Talk about a steep learning curve! Our forearms ached so much, we had to take turns while struggling to direct the squirt into the bucket, and overcome our terror that she’d step on us or in the bucket. We managed to get enough to feed Tina and Geraline (calves) the colostrum. Fortunately Bossie was a wonderful cow and gave us lots of milk for many years.
We got better at it and now I think fondly back to those days. Love raw milk!
Ana