got milk?

The kids and I are in Oklahoma visiting my aunt and family on my mom's side. Paul dropped us off here in Cushing on his way to OKC for the Church of God convention. This afternoon we went next door to visit a dairy. The owner, Brian, used to be partners with my uncle when he ran a dairy himself. 

The milk we drink has to come from somewhere. There are small dairies like this all over the area. It's quite unassuming isn't it?

Running a dairy is hard work and so confining. The cows must be milked twice a day. Brian said he and his helper are up at 330 in the morning to start the first milking. 

It takes about four hours to milk the 117 cows they have. They finish up around 8 in the morning and start up again at 3 in the afternoon. We stopped by during the afternoon milking. 

 

Here's an up close shot of the pumps. 

You can see how full that udder is on the right of this picture. The milk's gotta come out. Brian said most dairy cows give milk for about four years. 

The milk runs thru a pipe and thru this apparatus before going in to a big tank. Brian said this thing came out of my uncle's milk barn. Said it was real old school and you probably wouldn't see one of these in most dairies these days. 

The milk goes from that to the tank and is cooled down and stored until the truck comes to get it. He said the truck comes every day but their tank could hold 2.5 day's worth. 

I had seen the process when my uncle had his dairy but it was many years ago when I was younger and I didn't appreciate it much. Today I found the whole thing pretty interesting. 

Milk. So widely used. A staple in nearly every home. And it comes from such a humble place, the cow, just the way God designed it.