"I'm always surprised by the number of people who advise a mom to drink amount of water per day to make enough milk. Sometimes I try to pull "other-mammal" knowledge from people.  But when I ask what a farmer could do to get more milk from a cow, the answer is often a blank look followed by "Give it more water?"  I'm amazed that the notion of more frequent milking just doesn't occur to people.  I wonder if it would have 75 years ago."

My father grew up on a dairy farm and I decided to ask him this question. He figured the question was somehow related to human lactation but here was his answer for anyone wondering:

"I think more frequent milking (for example every 8 hours rather than every 12 hours) is now being done on some larger "industrial" dairy operations. I'd say historically it just didn't fit into the rhythm of daily chores - it's a whole lot of work to round up the cows, clean them up, and milk them, TWICE a day. Now to do that THREE times! I doubt you would see a 50% increase in production but I sure could be wrong. My initial thoughts were all about optimizing normal conditions - make sure they are disease free, have good pasture, and are not stressed (heat, insects, chased by dogs - the usual nursing mother concerns!)"


I found it interesting that the inconvenience of frequent milking came up. Isn't that a usual reply from nursing mothers too! 

Genuinely,
Alia Heise
Finger Lakes WIC in NY 

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