Cows Aren't The Only Ones

Milking the Cow 

Milking a cow long ago on a farm in Kansas

After reading this story with your children think about what life was like on a farm in Kansas.

What was the importance of having a cow?
How did the cow contribute to the life of the family?

Encourage your children to ask their grandparents or great grandparents about their experiences with milking. Your children could write and illustrate stories following the example of the following story by Mary Ann Sachse Brown, illustrated by Roy Lee Brown.



Every morning and every evening, Johnnie took a tin pail to the barn and sat on a three-legged stool to milk Bessie. She often turned her head to watch him as he rhythmically tended to his task. Johnnie was always kind to Bessie and she liked him too so gave a lot of milk.

She never kicked over the milk pail as some milk cows would do at milking time. Somehow, she knew the family was depending on her. When Johnnie was finished, the hungry barn cats gathered round for the saucer of warm milk he always gave them.

The Cow from Grasshopper Falls, Part 1

Kansas Collection Books: Mary Ann Sachse Brown recounts the story her Aunt Ruth used to tell about their family coming to Kansas, with extraordinary illustrations by Roy Lee Brown. A wonderful children's book!

Timothy Grass 

Fuel for Milk

Photo Credit: Timothy After Bloom
on Flickr, Creative Commons.

TIMOTHY - Phleum pratense - a perennial grass that produces a luxuriant, soft-leafed crop for both grazing and cutting for hay.

It can withstand cold weather and in a late spring is often on of the first grasses to begin growing and will remains leafy until late June; therefore it is a valuable mid-summer grass. Late summer and autumn is will produce less than other grasses.

Identifying Grasses

Common grasses that are found in fields used for grazing horses and ponies.

Goat's Milk Soap 

Soap from Goat's Milk

Goat's Milk Soap

Goat's milk has long been a favorite of people that suffer from dry flaky skin.

Camel's Milk 

Photo Credit: San Diego Fair camel milking
on Flickr, Creative Commons.

Camel's milk is so low in fat that it can't be made into cheese.

camels and camel milk

II. MILK PRODUCTIONWhen discussing milk and lactation in general, two aspects must be taken
into account. The first is the amount of milk produced per day and per lactation
period. The other aspect, which is as important, is the type of milk
produced. Animals living in cold areas or in the sea nee

Camel milk is good for you

Camel milk is good for you

Have you ever wondered how desert people managed to survive without any fruit or vegetables? Where do they get their vitamins?

The answer is : in camel milk.

Unlike cows, camels do not store milk in the udder, and any distraction at milking time can stop the milk flow entirely. Camels are a bit temperamental, and give more milk if they know and like the milker.

Until now all milking is done by hand. Mechanical milking is reported in Central Asia and India, but such novelties have not yet reached Mauritania.

Camel milk does not curdle, and this makes it easily digestible. Cream is difficult to separate.

Camel milk is considered by desert people as a complete food, that one can live on alone for weeks.

Photos of bedouin customs

Milking Goats and Camels

New Agriculturist 2009-1: In pictures: Desert dessert - camel milk ice cream (slide 1)

Demand for camel milk is increasing. Its health-boosting properties, particularly for those suffering from diabetes, mean a market for fresh camel milk is developing.

Desert dessert
Camel milk ice cream has a delicate texture and can be flavoured to local tastes. Using other desert produce, such as dates, pistachio and wild berries will add to the provenance of the desert dessert.

Milking a Sheep 

Sheep are milked to make Cheese

Sheep Dairying

Do they really milk sheep?
Sheep have been raised for their milk for thousands of years and were milked before
cows. The world's commercial dairy sheep industry is concentrated in Europe and in countries on or near the Mediterranean Sea.

Qashqai woman milking sheep

The South Persian nomads are tribal pastoral nomads. Each family raises sheep and goats for their livelihood.

Each tribe manages their resources including the lands. Every family in the tribe is given two pieces of land - one in the foothills and the other high in the mountains. There they live, raise their animals, and plant crops such as wheat and barley.

Milking Icelandic Sheep at the Tongue River Farm

Today there is growing interest in establishing small farmer owned sheep dairies. The lucrative sheep cheese market in the USA has fueled interest in these specialty farm enterprises. Sheep milk is high in fat and dissolved solids which are what is needed to make excellent, high yielding cheese from relatively small amounts of milk.

Sheep milk is also being made into very profitable yogurt, which is velvety smooth, creamy and naturally sweet. It needs no sweetener or fruit to make it palatable. It is a desert quality dairy product.

Milking a Moose 

Have you ever milked a moose?

Photo Credit: Moose Milk
on Wikicommons.

ITN - Russian breeders milk a moose

A farm in Russia has come up with a unique way of milking a moose.

How do you milk a moose, anyway?

It all started over an innocent lunchroom conversation. A co-worker's wife is a gourmet cheese maker in Maine. She had just been written up in the New York Times for her cheese-making ability and knew a thing or two about cheese.

But there was some news in the cheese-making world that had her cheese-making juices flowing, my co-worker told us. A man was apparently milking a moose and making cheese. He was charging $500 a pound. The cheese community was in "abuzz" over this moose-milking man.

Moose milk - Wikipedia

Moose milk, also known as elk milk, refers to milk produced by Alces alces. Though it is most commonly consumed by baby moose, its production has also been commercialised in Russia and Sweden.

Milking a Reindeer 

Reindeer milk

It is hard to imagine large scale milking of these animals, not only since the process is labour intensive but also because the output is poor. According to the FAO, reindeer milk yields are extremely low. Couple this to the fact that it apparently takes two people to milk the beasts - one to do the milking and the other to hold the horns it is no wonder that the milk has never gone mainstream.

However,

Milking News! 

New England's Largest Dairy Co-Op Quits Hormone

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- After 15 years of debating the issue, New England's largest dairy cooperative says it will phase out using milk from cows treated with a synthetic hormone.

Agri-Mark, which is based in Methuen, Mass., says it's responding to market demand in asking member farmers to stop treating cows with bovine somatatropin, or BST, a Monsanto Corp. product.

BST can boost milk production in cows by about 15 percent, but has come under fire from consumer groups worried about its impacts on humans and cows.

Last year, Wal-Mart said it would no longer sell milk under its own label from cows treated with the hormone.

Cows Called By Name Give More Milk. : Ecoscraps

Calling cows by name has been shown to increase their milk production, thereby cutting costs and reducing environmental impact.

Researchers at the University of Newcastle in the UK have reported, in the scientific journal Anthrozoos, that cows on farms where they are called by name yielded 258 litres a year more milk than those who were not called by name. Given that the average milk production in the UK is around 6 900 litres a year this represents an increase of almost 4%. This zero cost intervention can increase output and in reality reduce the herd size.

Cows Aren't the Only Ones is in the Four Wheeler's Online Unit Study Directory 

Thank you to the Four Wheelers for including the Cows Aren't the Only Ones in their Online Unit Study Directory.

Internet Directory of Unit Studies

The Four Wheelers Internet Directory of Unit Studies contains a list, roughly arranged by subject, of links to unit studies that are published on the Internet.