What is the process of cow milk?

Answer 1

The composition of one serving of milk (whole dairy milk w/ 3.25% fat) includes:

Overall Composition:

Water: 215.50 g

Energy: 146 kcal

Carbohydrate: 11.03 g

Fat: 7.93 g

Protein: 7.86 g

Minerals (Ash): 1.68 g

Vitamins

Vitamin A: 68 µg

Thiamin (Vitamin B1): 0.107 mg

Riboflavin (Vitamin B2): 0.447 mg

Niacin (Vitamin B3): 0.261 mg

Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5): 0.883 mg

Pyridoxene (Vitamin B6): 0.088 mg

Cobalamin (Vitamin B12): 1.07 µg

Vitamin C: 0.0 mg

Vitamin D: 98 IU

Vitamin E: 0.15 mg

Folate: 12 µg

Vitamin K: 0.5 µg

Minerals (Ash):

Calcium: 276 mg

Copper: 0.027 mg

Iron: 0.07 mg

Magnesium: 24 mg

Manganese: 0.007 mg

Phosphorus: 222 mg

Potassium: 349 mg

Selenium: 9.0 µg

Sodium: 98 mg

Zinc: 0.98 mg

Answer 2

1. Milker preparation: The hands of a person milking cows can become contaminated with mastitis-causing pathogens, either from handling dirty equipment or from contact with contaminated milk from infected cows. Some microorganisms prefer living and growing on skin, whether it is the cow's teat skin of the milker's hands. Today, most milking operations will have the milkers wear disposable latex gloves. These are replaced periodically through the milking process.

2. Clean the teats: The teats are prepared by thoroughly cleaning the teat and teat-ends with some solution that removes dirt and provides some sanitation to the teat skin. Many people now use a pre-milking germicide dip solution (for example at the UIUC farm they use a 1% iodine solution) called a per-dip. This wets the teat, provides sufficient moisture to wipe off the teat and get it clean, and sanitizes the teat skin. The act of massaging the teats while wiping them off also is stimulating the oxytocin release that will cause milk ejection.

It is important to avoid getting the udder wet. Use of spray hoses (drop hoses) to spray germicide onto the teats can get the udder hair wet, where the contaminated fluid then can drain down the teat to the teat end even after wiping off the teat. Long udder hair is not desirable and it is usual for many dairy producers to remove the hair from the udder, especially during winter months. This is done by clipping udders or by singeing the hair with a flame. If done properly, the latter method is very effective with no effect on the cow.

3. Dry the teats: Use a separate dry towel (usually paper or cloth) to wipe-off and dry the teats thoroughly. It is particularly important to get the entire teat and tip of the teat clean. When a pre-dip is used, wiping off the teat will remove most of the iodine solution resulting in negligible contamination of milk with the iodine. Typically milkers will dip teats on several cows and then return to the first cow, wipe off the teat and go to step three. The use of sponges is discouraged. Sponges can harbor mastitis-causing pathogens, even when soaked in germicide. Use of individual towels so that each cow is separately dried is highly recommended. Reuse of a towel from one cow to the next can spread mastitis-causing pathogens from cow-to-cow.

4. Foremilk stripping: Several squirts of milk are removed from each quarter. This is done into a strip cup, where the white flakes or clots in the milk will be collected and show up against the black screen of the strip cup top. Alternatively, milk is stripped onto the floor under the cow and observed for flakes or clots. The latter approach is most commonly used, although using the strip cup is the preferred means of identifying flakes or clots. Cows with flakes or clots in their milk probably have some form of mastitis. This is the most common means of identifying clinical mastitis. Typically, the milk that was furthest down in the gland at the start of milking, that is closest to the teat end, is high in somatic cells. Eliminating this by stripping results in lowered overall somatic cells in the milk that is harvested.

5. Application of the machine: The milking machine should be applied within one minute of the initial wiping of the teats to take maximum advantage of the milk letdown response. The milker holds the claw in hand, the vacuum is turned on and four teat cups are applied as efficiently as possible, with minimal sucking of air when teat cups are turn up to place on the teat ends. Milk should start flowing immediately. Adjust the machine so that it hangs straight down from the cow. Teat cups that ride-up excessively high on a teat should be adjusted. This situation can potentially cause irritation to the teat lining.

6. Machine-on time: Maximal intramammary pressure caused by milk letdown occurs at about one minute after udder preparation begins and continues for about 5 minutes. Shortly after that the milk flow will drop to a point where the automatic take-offs will detach the milking machine. Most cows will milk out in 5 to 7 minutes.

Some cows are slow to milk out. This may occur because they produce more milk than can be removed in 5 minutes, even with maximal removal efficiency. Or, cows may have structural problems with the teat end or inside the udder that makes them milk out slowly. In the latter case, because the machine is on the cow repeatedly for long periods, the cows may be expose to more chances of contacting mastitis-causing pathogens.

7. Detaching the machine at the end of milking: The vacuum must be turned off before the machine is removed. Otherwise, pulling on the teat cups while the vacuum is still on may cause trauma to the teat ends, weakening the sphincter muscles that keep the streak canal closed. Normally it takes about one hour after milking for the streak canal to re-close. Any teat end trauma may compromise the ability the sphincter muscles to close the canal and prolong the exposure of the teat end to mastitis-causing pathogens post-milking. Most people milking cows tend to over-milk the udder. In an effort to remove all of the milk, they will physically push down on the claw or pull down on one or more teat cups. This is called machine stripping, and while it does result in removal of more milk from the quarters, it also results in overmilking and more stress on the gland. The purpose of the automatic take-off (ATO) is to prevent this overmilking. The milking system detects flow rate of milk coming from the gland. When that flow rate drops to a specified level, the vacuum is turned off and a mechanical arm or chain retracts and pulls the machine from the cow's udder.

8. Post-milking teat germicide dipping: As indicated above in #5, the streak canal stays open for about an hour after milking. If a cow's teat then comes in contact with mastitis-causing pathogens, they may easily enter the teat and cause an infection. One of the most effective means of controlling mastitis is post-milking teat dipping with a germicide. This protects the teat end for a period after milking, kills pathogens that may be on the teat skin, and minimizes the potential passage of those pathogens from one cow to the other at the next milking. Post-milking teat dipping can reduce new infections by 50%. However, teat dipping must be done routinely at each milking. Only doing dipping teats for selective periods of time is not effective.

9. Post-milking cow management: Because the streak canal stays open for about an hour after milking, often producers will make feed (often hay or silage) available to the cows after they are done milking. Cows will remain standing while eating. This reduces the chances of the cow lying in manure that may contaminate the teat end before streak canal closure.

Teat health has been mentioned at several points above, whether in combination with proper vacuum level and pulsation rate and ratio or teat dipping. Anything that compromises the health of the teat end potentially weakens the ability of the sphincter muscles to properly close the streak canal or the ability of the keratin lining to seal off the canal. Chapped teats during winter, teats that are traumatized by being stepped on or from improper milking machine function, cows being suckled by other cows, improper or repeated insertion of teat cannulas for intramammary infusion of antibiotics or other intramammary treatments or for draining milk from teats that are damaged, all may compromise the health of the teat end.

Answer 3

The process starts in the rumen. The grass in the rumen is broken down into molecules and tiny pieces through the process of fermentation by microflora in the rumen and rumen contractions which help mix all the liquid and solid matter together. The process of fermentation helps break through the tough plant matter like cellulose, fibre, lignin and hemicellulose and enable nutrient extraction. These nutrients include carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, vitamins and minerals, which are absorbed through not only the rumen wall, but also through the omasum, abomasum and small intestine (primarily the small intestine). Capillaries which link to blood vessels transport these nutrients to different parts of the body, including the udder of a cow.

Inside the udder there are many different vessels and cisterns and "holding units" where milk is stored, as well as many tiny alveloi. In these alveoli is where milk cells are located, which are linked to capillaries and blood vessels that have carried all this nutrient-rich blood from the digestive tract of the cow to the udder. There, the nutrients and other goodies are deposited in the milk cells to be combined into the formation of milk. Milk cells also create other molecules and sugars like casein and lactose. This milk is drained into the alveoli which, after filling up, drain into vessels into various cisterns which all drain into larger cisterns and so on until all the milk is collected into the Glans Cistern, the largest compartment where milk is collected. Once this area fills up (making the udder, on the outside, appear large and swollen), milk is let down by the hormone Oxytocin into the teat canal, which is excreted with the help of the suckling action of a calf, a milker, or by a milking machine.

Answer 2: The process starts in the rumen. The feedstuffs (this varies between beef and diary producing animals) is broken down into molecules and tiny pieces through the process of fermentation. The rumen, omasum, abomasum and reticulum are equipped with bacteria and protozoa that are able to absorb the necessary nutrients that aid in milk production. These nutrients include carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, vitamins and minerals, which are absorbed primarily by the small intestine. Capillaries which link to blood vessels transport these nutrients to different parts of the body, including the developing mammary glands.

The rest of milk production occurs in the mammary gland (also known as an exocrine gland), this gland produces the external secretion of milk transportation through a series of milk veins. The secretory tissue of the mammary gland is composed of millions of alveoli (grape like structures). Each of the alveolus has its own separate blood supply from which milk constituents are obtained by the epithelial cells often referred to as "milk cells." These milk cells are linked to capillaries and blood vessels that have carried all this nutrient-rich blood from the digestive tract of the cow to the udder.

These alveoli will take nutrients from the bloodstream, these structures will then add fat, protein, casein and lactose (a type of sugar) to produce milk. Milk will then collect in the alveolus lumen and, during milk let down (initiated by the hormone Oxytocin), will travel through ducts into a larger area called the Gland Cistern. Once this area fills up (making the udder, on the outside, appear large and full), milk will then continue to travel into the teat cistern and through the teat canal to the outside of the teat. Milk will either be excreted through a machine (the milking system in dairy production), by hand, or by the calf suckling. However, if the cow is a high producer she will often leak milk as she enters the parlour (as oxytocin is already allowing milk to drop into the teat). Beef cattle can leak milk if the calf does not suckle often enough.
Cows produce milk just like any other animal, the nutrition and vitamins from the food the cow eats partly goes into producing milk. The quality and quantity of milk that a cow produces depends on what you feed your cow.

Answer 4

Cows milk is produced in the cows udder when a cow has a calf it feeds the calf milk through the udder in the same way as a mother feeds a baby through the breast. Normally as the calf grows older it will be weaned from the udders and the udders stop producing milk, however dairy farmers then keep milking the cow so the cow keeps producing milk which is in turn treated bottled and sold.

Answer 5

Cow's milk and milk on the whole is pasteurised before it is sold to grocery stores or before consumers but it. The pasteurization process can be either be done by one of the following: High Temperature/Short Time [HTST] or Ultra-High Temperature [UHT] / ultra-heat treatedL] or Extended Shelf Life [ESL] In HTST process milk is forced between metal plates or through pipes heated on the outside by hot water, and is heated to 71.7 °C (161 °F) for 15-20 seconds. In UHT processUHT processing holds the milk at a temperature of 138 °C (250 °F) for a fraction of a second. After pasteurization the milk is rapidly cooled, then strored. The milk is then carefully packaged and sent off in bulk to sale distributors etc.

Answer 6

By giving birth to a calf. The cells in the alveoli of the udder secrete milk which drain into a cistern which is made available, through the teats, as milk to the newborn calf.

Answer 7

Buy cow, put bull behind cow, wait 9 months, calve out cow, then milk out cow. That's how you "make" cow milk.

See related question below for more.

Answer 8

Humans make dairy products. Cows just make milk that humans need to make milk products like ice cream, yogurt, cheese, butter, etc.