To start my afternoon at the dairy farm, I scraped faeces from the cattle beds and encouraged some of the apprehensive cows to get up because it was milking time. 
Although I had watched milking before and worked with dairy cows, this was my first time milking. 
When the cows came into the parlour, I wiped their teats clean as they entered. Systematically, I placed the suction devices on the four teats. The machine automatically retracted when the milking was complete as the suction cups fell off. As this depended on the cow, I had to be quick to then place the machine on the cow parallel in the parlour. Once a row of cows were milked, I sprayed their teats with iodine because the streak canal is opened to release milk so cows are susceptible to mastitis post-milking.
The idea is that the cows graze for half an hour before going back inside, to prevent them laying down soon after milking.
Cows on antibiotics are marked as their milk cannot be milked into the tank. Other markers include teat problems, so milkers know when to put blockers into the device. 
I then had the fun job of feeding the calves. I bottle fed a 1 day old calf and used the machine to fill the older calves’ buckets
