Talk:Milking

65.125.77.99 18:26, 22 September 2007 (UTC)Does anyone know why cows are milked throughout the year? Is this natural? If not, what has been done to cows?

--much like human teats, as long as you keep sucking the milk out of them, they'll keep making more.

a cow must have a baby before she is hormonally triggered to produce milk. She is said to have "come fresh" in Oklahoma. I believe as long as she is milked she will continue to give milk. However if her milking (usually its twice daily, with extreeme punctuality) is interrupted she will "dry up". This can also be caused by a bad case of mastitis (some cows will refuse to come into be milked and have to be "forced" because an infected teat is painful for them to be milked or even just to be touched. However it must be "milked out"or the infection can get worse and spread throughout the udder. If she stays away and hides( they are good at this) and misses sometimes only one milking she will start to "dry up". Mastitis can ruin a good milker forever, due to permanent damage to milk ducts, creation of scar tissue etc. Dairymen are very concerned when a cow doesnt show up for her milking or acts touchy about being handled. Dairy cows produce so much milk that it is painful for them to miss a milking. A missed milkng is also enough to trigger a case of mastitis. I am not a dairyman by trade but did work at a dairy two years ,milking 150 head. It was an amazing education in animal intelligence. I saw every so called "human trait" duplicated in their behavior.65.125.77.99 18:29, 22 September 2007 (UTC) 65.125.77.99 18:29, 22 September 2007 (UTC)Rmmiller2050@yahoo.com

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.125.77.99 (talk) 18:23, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Anyone know what the heck "Often this is done coercively." is supposed to mean at the end of the last paragraph? Some sort of PETA propaganda? Coercive means "relating to or using force or threats" ... well you can't threaten a cow to get it to produce milk, and while technically you force the cow to be milked (because it can't hook itself up to a machine on its own), the above anecdote and other evidence shows that if you don't milk a dairy cow it is uncomfortable and risks infection, so opting not to milk them is not an option. Any thoughts? Seankreynolds (talk) 23:55, 25 June 2008 (UTC)

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"...requires the animal to be currently or recently pregnant." should be changed to "... requires the animal to have given birth" or something like it; the prerequisite for giving milk has nothing to do with being pregnant but with parturition. Thanks, Steffi

Milking as a metaphor

The most common modern usage of this term is as a metaphor and should covered. e.g.

• exploit or defraud by taking small amounts of money over a period of time.