I often herd my grandpa talk about his childhood and the days when his family milked cows by hand. I remember hearing these stories and imagining this in my head, not thinking that people in other parts of the world are still milking cows by hand. What I had imagined as a little kid when I heard stories from my grandpa were similar to how Francisco milks his nine cows by hand.

Francisco receives help from his son and other neighbors to feed and milk his cows twice a day. He often sells his milk for cheese processing rather than for liquid milk consumption because of the price increase. The cows give 90 liters (24 gallons) of milk in the morning and 70 liters (18 gallons) at night, with milking times being 8:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

I found the milking procedure to be standard, but I felt the sanitation was lacking for both the cows and how the milk was stored. He could take simple measures, such has sanitizing the pails the milk goes in before the cow gets milked and use a different towel to wipe every cow’s teats off with.

The housing for the animals was almost non existent and they only had few trees to protect them from the sun, which I found very interesting given the living quarters of dairy cows in the United States. I am surprised the cows were giving 160 liters a day given their living conditions.

Overall, Francisco used the tools he had to the best of his ability and making a living for his family, just like my great grandpa did.