Cultureshock

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Video transcript

When I came to Beamish I saw a milk churn which reminded me of my childhood days spent on the farm. We had a dairy herd of 18 cows, mostly known by name such as Buttercup and Daisy. The cows were milked twice a day, morning and evening. They were milked by an electric milking machine which was powered by a small generator.  The generator allowed us to watch television at milking time as we had no electricity in the house, which was lit by gas mantles and we had a rayburn for cooking. The milk was transferred from the machines into churns in the dairy which was always very cool and had its own special smell due to the cleansing fluids which were used. The milk was passed through a muslin filter into the churns. When the churns were full they were taken by tractor to the end of the lane were they were collected by a tanker and taken to the milk marketing board dairy where it was pasteurised. The milk from each cow was measured and I recorded it in a log book, I also stamped labels with the farm name on to be attached to the churns.

Although the dairy was spotless it would not be up to today’s regulations and we drank our milk straight from the cow and we never had any ailments or allergies that people complain about today, we were all fit and healthy. Newly calved cows suckled their calves and their milk couldn’t be added to the churns for some time. The cows were very special to the farmer (my father) as he had built his herd up  over many years on the farm and were known to him personally. They came up from the lush green fields were they grazed when he shouted for them and ambled slowly into the byre eager to be milked.  They knew their own stalls and made their way to them. In the winter they were fed on hay, turnips and cow cake with special nutrients.  They were treated to music which was supposed to be soothing and to increase milk yield. ‘Stranger on the shore’ was a particular favourite of the cows or I my father I wasn't quite sure. Days on the farm were hard and we had certain deprivations, however, it has left me with an overwhelming love of the countryside and an appreciation of the changing seasons.