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The unique jobs of students: Dairy farming

 

A milker has five components to get the milk from the udder to the holding tank. The holding tank holds and cools the milk. Photo by Leah Kaufman 2024.

Have you ever wondered how milk gets into your glass? Or how much effort goes into getting milk into your refrigerator?

Junior Ethan Hendershot certainly knows the effort it takes.

“If we didn’t have them [cows] you would have no more dairy products,” said Hendershot.

Ethan has worked at Dereamer Dairy, in Cogan Station, for two years.

Hendershot said his work consists of feeding the cows, fixing equipment, and milking the cows.

Many don’t realize how much effort goes into milking cows. It takes money, patience, a good mindset, and support from others.

Many things can go wrong at a dairy farm; cows can get sick, equipment does not work, and occasionally machines can fail. But it all takes dedication to continue pushing through all of these hurdles.

“I started because the rest of my family has worked on a dairy farm, and I have loved it and the cows ever since,” said Hendershot

Junior Ethan Hendershot strips the teet of a cow to prepare her for milking. Hendershot spends around two hours milking cows. Photo by Leah Kaufman 2024.

Hendershot’s night starts at four pm. with him getting the equipment around to milk.

That means setting up the milkhouse, and the parlor, bringing the cows down, and scraping and bedding the stalls.

Then he gets on to milking the cows, which involves various steps.

First, he opens the tandem 12 stanchion. A twelve-cow stanchion holds the cows in place so they can be milked.

Then he strips milk from the teet, then uses pre-dip to prep the cow’s teets. He lets that sit for around 30 seconds, then he wipes it off, puts the milkers on, and waits.

Once the cow’s udder is empty the milker falls off, then Hendershot post-dips the teets. After all the cows on each side are done he then releases that side and lets the next group in.

Hendershot milks around 130 cows, which ends up taking him around two hours to milk.

“If the market goes the right way I will own a dairy. I want my kids to have a farm to live on and I have always wanted my own dairy,” said Hendershot.

Hendershot plans to own and run a dairy in the future. He wants to be a part of the small community of dairies, which are hard to find anymore.

According to the Center for Dairy Excellence, Pennsylvania’s dairy has shrunk by around 12% or 65,000 head of cattle. More information about the commonwealth’s dairy industry can be found at Dairy Information.

Featured Photo (at top): Six holstein cows patiently wait for the milkers to be put in place. It takes around 3-5 minutes to milk a cow. Photo by Leah Kaufman 2024.

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