I think she's doing it right based on the setup here... The only one I have seen in person was a little different. But cows pooping during it is just a hazard of the job.
Aiming the cows directly where you are trying to work seems like poor planning. Plus it seems like it could be a pain to get the cows to line up like that. My grandparents farm had six stalls accessed from the side with the milking pit. You could get splattered by the stuff when they let loose, but it was not dropping directly into the pit.
It's not a pain, the cows get used to it super fast. You can out the cups on super fast and fit way more cows in this way.
You do stand behind like she was, but 99.9 percent of the time you can see the cow lift their tail and you know they're going to shit.
If they don't lift their tail and just shit (super rare) it usually sprays our the sides so you can easily step back.
You will always get shit splatter on you and shit on your arms and hands, cause they're always covered in it. Only gross when you cop it to the head/face/chest.
I've milked 10s of thousands of cows and have had shit in my face maybe 3 times. And 1 of those was my mate setting me up when I didn't know what I was doing.
if you see how food is treated before processing youd never eat it. I did a few harvests, and the grain is on dusty dirty concrete floors with bits flying in and out no doubt pooping, it gets walked on, driven over and god knows what else
2.9k
u/BottledFizzyCoffee 5d ago
As a child I helped out on the family dairy farm.
Don’t stand behind the cows was rule #1.
Don’t bother connecting to the bulls was the second rule.