We stopped by Morrill Farm Dairy to check out the art of milking

Morrill takes a look at the filter, the last step before the milk hits the 8,000 gallon tank, which is drained and transported to the Hood plant on North State Street every other day for processing. Then before you know it, it’s in your refrigerator.

The milking process has changed a lot with technology – no more doing it by hand.

The system ensures that the milk is as clean as possible. “It does not hit the air, it’s not exposed, until you open it up on the kitchen table,” Morrill said.

That amount of milk may last you a month, but that’s nothing compared to the 3,200 to 4,000 pounds the Morrill Farm cows produce every day and that’s just in Penacook.

Morrill’s wife Sherri was on milking duty Friday, sterilizing both before and after, as well as getting all the mechanical doohickeys hooked up to the utters.

Morrill usually milks between 50 and 60 cows, twice a day at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m., at his Penacook farm, one of his two operations in New Hampshire. The cows are brought in four at a time and hooked up to machines that do a lot of the hard work so Morrill and his family don’t have to.

Getting good milk production starts with feeding the cows a “great big salad,” with ingredients grown right on the farm, owner Rob Morrill said. “We do a better job feeding the animals than we do ourselves,” Morrill joked. “You’ve got to feed them a balanced diet because they’ve got to be healthy.”

Cow No. 2511 kept a close eye on us during our trip to Morrill Farm Dairy last week and we kept a close eye on the milking process.