Some time
ago, 9 november 2014, I posted a blog with the title “To ascertain the state of
the secretion”. The subject of this blog was a short essay published in 1835,
dealing with the lack of practical experience, shown by recently graduated vets
in England,
when called to farms for treating diseases of cattle. Young vets should obtain
the skills to manipulate the animals when working with them: take up the feet,
hold the bullock by the nose, know how to milk a cow for taking milk samples
for inspection of mastitis. For if he should go to the wrong side of the cow,
the milk-maid or the mistress should laugh against him: “he did not know the
milking side of the cow.”
This remark
has me kept thinking since then. Why should the author, apparently an
experienced vet, make such a remark? Was
there a standard milking side in the 1830’s? And if so, was it the left- or the
right-hand side? Suppose it had to be the right-hand side, why should those
young vets did not know it, since even in the London metropole sufficient small dairy farms
were present in those days to make them able to observe on which side a cow was
milked.
Nowadays
cows, when they are hand-milked, are milked on the right-hand side. Nobody
seems to know why. Internet is onlu a little bit helpful (see below). Searching
the older literature gave some results that may lead to a conclusion.
1. Several
drawings dating from the early 19th century (and later) show
milk-maids milking a cow on the right-hand side. One of those is shown here,
taken from a Dutch five volume book on the natural history of cattle 1.
2. Most 19th
century authors of dairy farming books are not interested in the side on which
to milk a cow, they do not mention left or right. When they do, they prefer the
right side of the cow. A Dutch instruction for dairy farmers by ter Haar,
published around 1900, states that you should milk your cows on the right-hand
side. He advises: “For milking you set yourself at the right side of the cow …
That cross-wise milking should be better, as has been claimed, has not been
confirmed” 2.
3. An
anonymous author, who calls himself Ruricola, states in 1856: “The cow is
generally milked from the left side, the milkmaid then having the right hand
more at liberty, as the left hand is comparatively confined to the flank.”. 3
I must admit that I have no personal experience with milking cows, but I do not
understand the argument for this proposal. In my view the argument holds for
right-side milking.
4. The
Dutch professor of Animal Husbandry H.M.Kroon, who had a main interest in and
was an expert of milk science, published a short book in 1897 with practical
instructions for dairy farmers. “The milk-man or milk-maid who is going to milk
a cow, is generally setting his- or herself at the right-hand side of the
animal, close to the right hindleg”. He then quotes a certain Dr.Brümmel who
has the opinion that when the hind quarters of the udder give more milk than
the front quarters, milking on the
left-hand side gives a better yield. But this is only true for cross-wise
milking: the right hand has more power and milks the teats that give more milk.4
5. Cows may
be milked on both sides at the same farm. This is the observation of Charles
Louis Flint, who described the daily practice of dairy farming in Holland in the 1860’s.
“The milking takes place on the right side of the cow, so that the milker sits
on this side. In West-Friesland and North-Holland there is an exception to this
rule. The cows are tied in pairs in the stalls and one is milked on one side
and the other on the other, the milker sitting with his back to the board
partition to avoid annoyance from either animal”.5 Flint was an
American who relied mainly on European sources for his description of dairy
farming practice.
6. I make
room for one observation of milking from modern times. In India, as was
suggested on an internet forum, cows are milked on the left side.This was
confirmed by a video I found on YouTube, in which is shown how an Indian farmer
teaches his wife to milk a cow on the left side.6
Conclusion.
Although hand
milking on the right hand-side is preferred above milking on the left side, a
clear convincing argument for this habit cannot be found. Milking on the left
side may work equally well. I think it is more a matter of tradition and of not annoying a cow that is used to be milked at one side by changing sites
unnecessary.
1. Joannes Le Francq van Berkhey, Natuurlijke
historie van het rundvee in Holland , Vierde stuk. Trap, Leyden, 1809,
p.370
2. A.A. ter Haar, Melk
en melkproducten. Volledig leerboek der zuivelbereiding Noordhof,
Groningen, 1905, p.29.
3. Ruricola, Dairy farming. The rearing and
feeding of dairy stock, and the management of their produce., Lovell Reeve, London, 1856, p.136.
4. H.M.Kroon, Het melken. Een bevattelijk boekje voor den
veehouder. Doetinchem, Misset, 1897, p.23 and 29.
5. Charles
Louis Flint, Milch cows and dairy farming, Tilton & Co, Boston, 1867, p.298-299
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhJnHYtLB-o&feature=related
I thank
Babke Aarts for bringing references 2 and 4 to my attention.
