Remember when...

We milked cows by hand twice a day

I am old enough to remember when we milked cows by hand twice a day sitting on a three-legged stool in a barn with dirt floors. Beef farmers had enough money to sell product once a year. Dairy farmers needed money weekly so they could buy feed. Checks for milk we sold were received weekly. After the milking, we poured the milk into a galvanized milk can that contained about 15 gallons of milk per can.

These cans were set out along the road in front of our house under a shade tree so the milk truck could pick up our two cans daily.

We had four milk cans. When the milk truck picked up our full cans of milk, the driver left the two cleaned empty cans he had picked up the day before. In warm weather, we put the milk cans in a tub full of water. This helped the milk stay cool and not spoil until it was picked up. We had fresh milk daily and made our own butter weekly.

Milk prices started moving downward, and feed prices stayed the same.

The last year we did this, my father kept careful records of exact costs and how much milk income and calf sales income we derived. It came out we had exactly broken even. All we profited was the milk we used. That was not worth the getting up early to milk by hand twice daily. So we sold our cows.

These true stories are a weekly column written by Floyd Fenix, a Texarkana, Ark., educator and businessman.