Glimpses from Narayana’s Cowshed

09-03-2018
Two friends in the calf box.
The bigger heifers are outside. Here they are on their way to their feeding space.

The cows are very aware of what is happening around them.

Whenever the weather allows, they are out to get fresh air and exercise every day. They spend all the summer outside, and come inside only for the milking.

In the cowshed their feed consists of homegrown clovergrass silage, hay, rolled wheat and rye.

Now it is milking time.

Narayana is currently educating two agriculture students, Andrea Topsøe and Peter Lauritsen. Andrea is going to specialize in organic livestock farming, and Peter in organic crop-growing. They both assist in tending the Jersey cows, etc., and help in the agriculture fields, as well as in horticulture, greenhouses and beekeeping. This provides them with a very comprehensive education, theoretically as well as practically. The school terms, which are also part of the training for 'Global Organic Farmer', take place at ‘Kalø Organic Agricultural College’ in between the practical training periods.

Here, Peter is disinfecting before milking. Hygiene is a very important part of dairy production, and requires full attention.

Andrea prepares the milking trolley ...
... and desinfects the floor with calcium.
The first milk jets are milked by hand to check that the milk is alright.
Then the milking machine is put on.
It loosens automatically when the milking is over, as can be seen to the right. Cleaning of the udder with a desinfected cloth is part of the procedure both before and after milking.
The cow Veena is very content after the good treatment by the students.
The fresh milk is collected in the milk storage vat.

The somatic cell count is measured and checked regularly.

The analysis of the previous collection of milk, which is printed by the milk tanker’s computer, shows ‘2 Mdr. gns. totalkim 3’. That means that the somatic cell count was 3,000/ml on average for 2 months. That is the lowest count, which Arla can analyze, and brings the milk into the 1st class extra quality, where the upper limit is 60,000/ml.