The Blog

Then: My grandparents started out every morning by pulling their one-legged milking stool from the wall of the barn, then managed a balancing act with the stool and a bucket between their knees to catch the cow’s milk. One at a time, the cows would file into the barn, all three to five of them in the herd, to be milked by hand twice a day. It took about 10 to 15 minutes to milk each cow. They used the milk at home for their family, and leftovers to feed the hogs; they also used a crank-handle separator and sold the cream. That was then.

Now: Dairy producers utilize modern technology such as rotary milking parlors that offer a constant flow of cows and ease of operation. With some set-ups, producers can milk approximately 40 cows in the 17 minutes it takes for the carousel to make a complete rotation. Slow milking cows can be held in their stall and go around again. The carousel has variable speed control and can be reversed if needed. Then milk goes into a cooled bulk tank.

Rotary parlors are designed for herds larger than 1,000 cows, which goes to show that milking cows has come a long way since the milk bucket balancing act.

But there were some every day “advantages” back in the good ol’ days. For instance, once they learned the proper mouth-wide-open stance, farm cats used to enjoy the occasional drink of milk. I doubt they dare to get in the way of cows entering and exiting a rotary parlor.

Until our next history lesson…

Each fall, we cruise past fields where combines are busy harvesting crops, averaging 200 bushels per acre at 6 mph with a 6- or 12-row corn head. We have augers and grain bins and yield monitors and so many numbers our computers, not our notepads, are full to the brim. Now let’s rewind about 80 years.

I have to preface this week’s walk by providing you with some background. My grandfather, now 88, has an entire semi trailer full of antiques behind his shop. He has purposefully and meticulously cleaned each and every piece and proudly displays them for anyone interested in learning a bit more about “how things used to be” on the farm. I myself find this very interesting.

So this past weekend, I held a little piece of farming history in my hand (literally) and wanted to share it with you. We came across a palm corn husking hook, which sparked my interest, so I converted grandpa into a hand model for the morning. As you can tell, these are hands that have seen a bit of hard work.

You see, back in the 1930s, you would hold the corn shank in your left hand and rake the hook across the husks, break the ear loose from the shank, and toss each ear into a wagon. Corn cobs would then go in the corn crib to dry. The average field size was 80 acres (or a quarter at 160 acres). If you were fast, you could pick 100 bushels a day…taking you about 75 days to harvest that 80-acre field. The job required a lot of hand labor and a simple year’s harvest would take the entire fall and winter.

Now go sit in your big green air-conditioned combine, turn on your satellite radio, and smile because that was then.

Until our next history lesson…