Milk for your coffee

Milk for your morning coffee

    Our town, Featherston, is one of three farming communities that comprise the South Wairarapa. The other two towns are Greytown, and Martinborough where sheep and cattle farms, vineyards, apple and other fruit orchards, tree plantations, forest trees, etc., are found in bounty. Imagine vast, green grassland, valleys and hills against a backdrop of a clear blue sky, and from a distance you can see the green dotted by seemingly wee, white flocks of sheep, or even black and white or brown cattle grazing on a fine day. This is the beautiful South Wairarapa. 

         Since day one of arriving here at "middle earth", I have been wishing to witness for myself how cows are milked in New Zealand. I wished to trace the origin of that milk, which comes to us in the Philippines, already in powdered form and packed in tins and foils. The same milk that feeds and nourishes our infants, helps prevent osteoporosis in women, and most of all--creams our morning coffee. 

         The eventful day of my wish coming true was unexpected. David and I were invited to lunch by our new-found friends, Bob and Felina Curtice, who were from Greytown, to meet with another Filipina and her husband Alma and Ron Bethune, who were from another town called Wainuiomata. By the way, Alma and I speak the same dialect--Pampango. However, we came from different provinces - she is from Concepcion, Tarlac while I am from Santa Rita, Pampanga. That event was a meeting of three Filipino wives--Mel from Pampanga, Alma from Tarlac, and Felina from Isabela--with Kiwi (New Zealanders) husbands respectively, David, Ron, and Bob. 

         Our very hospitable host--Felina, was a very good cook. She served us Filipino foods we sorely missed--paksiw na ulo ng isdang salmon, papaitan, lumpiang prito, pansit guisado, macaroons and kutsinta, complemented with freshly grated coconut meat. Of course, for our Kiwi husbands, she cooked and served shepherd's pie, baked mushrooms, roasted chicken, etc.  

         Imagine our delight when one of the Curtice daughters, Vicky Curtice Fletcher, arrived with her grandson, and announced that her husband, Lex was milking the cows at four o'clock in the afternoon. 

         Guess how my chinky eyes widened upon hearing that. I could hardly hide my excitement that our very gracious hosts, suggested that we all take a trip to the farm. Of course, I didn't pass up that chance of a lifetime! Good that David's 'security blanket' was his camera and that he couldn't go out of the house without it. 

         Vicky and Lex's farm was just a few minutes' ride from the town proper. We were led into a 97-acre property (that's 38+ hectares), subdivided into paddocks and racers leading to the milking shed and enclosed by boundary fences. In some parts of the farm, a 9000-volt electrified wire fence ran in one selected paddock-where they would herd the stock, which they would from time to time, switch on and off to prevent the cows from grazing beyond that enclosure. This was to allow grass to regrow in some of their overgrazed paddocks.

         Quite different from most of our farms in the Philippines, everything in New Zealand farms is mechanized - from sowing, irrigating, harvesting, herding the flock, milking the cows, etc., making it easier for farmers to do the hard task of tending a large farm like this one. 
        Vicky was just too happy to show her curious guests around, explaining everything to satiate our curiosity. She even led us into the milking shed for us to get closer to her cows, which she fondly referred to us as "my girls", which then totaleld 97 heads, plus a number of newborn calves. 

         The cows are milked twice a day, she explained except during the winter season, which is gestation period for the cows. The animals are then due for calving come springtime. They collect an average of 1,600 liters of milk every milking time. Vicky explained that dairy farmers like them are paid in terms of dairy milk solids derived from their milk and not from the quantity of liquid milk they deliver. It was hard work, no doubt, but obviously, a very fulfilling one in terms of financial stability.   

 Lex was in the middle of milking the 'girls' when we entered the milking shed. We did not want to bother him, so it was Bob who did some explaining to us.  A motor bike, Bob pointed out, rounds up the cows from their paddock to the milking shed. It was amazing how even cows were trained to  queue for their turn to be milked. One by one, they would step into an elevated platform divided into what looked like cubicles where individual milking gadgets await. While other 'girls' were waiting, Lex was attaching the milking cups - four tube-like gadgets - to every cow's teats, and then, the sucking of the creamy liquid would start. The milking gadgets were connected to a pulsating vacuum hanging on the wall, which sucked the milk from the cow. Then the milk would go through metal pipes leading to a ten-foot tall, refrigerated milk vat, where all the cows' milk from the vat was stored.  Then on that same day, the milk from the vat is collected and transferred to a milk tanker, towed by a large trailer, which would then bring it to the dairy factory for processing. 

         The final scene showed the cows, after being milked, marching one by one back to the paddocks to go about their chore of masticating their daily grass that could energize and enable them to produce more for the next milking session.  Another milking day for them was done. 

         And that, dear friends is how milk in your coffee is produced.