Editing Dairy (section)

== History ==
{{Unreferenced section |date=July 2024}}
[[File:The Women's Land Army in Britain, 1915-1918 Q30682.jpg|thumb|A member of the [[Women's Land Army]] milking a cow during World War&nbsp;I]]
Milk producing animals have been domesticated for thousands of years. Initially, they were part of the [[subsistence farming]] that [[nomads]] engaged in. As the community moved about the country, their animals accompanied them. Protecting and feeding the animals were a major part of the [[symbiotic relationship]] between the animals and the [[herd]]ers.

In the more recent past, people in [[agriculture|agricultural societies]] owned dairy animals that they milked for domestic and local (village) consumption, a typical example of a [[cottage industry]]. The animals might serve multiple purposes (for example, as a [[draught animal]] for pulling a [[plow]] as a youngster, and at the end of its useful life as meat). In this case, the animals were normally milked by hand and the herd size was quite small, so that all of the animals could be milked in less than an hour—about 10 per milker. These tasks were performed by a ''dairymaid'' (''dairywoman'') or ''dairyman''. The word ''dairy'' harkens back to Middle English ''dayerie'', ''deyerie'', from ''deye'' (female servant or dairymaid) and further back to Old English ''dæge'' (kneader of bread).

With [[Industrial Revolution|industrialisation]] and urbanisation, the supply of milk became a commercial industry, with specialised [[List of breeds of cattle|breeds of cattle]] being developed for dairy, as distinct from beef or [[Working animals#Animals used for their strength|draught]] animals. Initially, more people were employed as milkers, but it soon turned to [[mechanisation]] with machines designed to do the milking.

[[File:MilkMaid.JPG|thumb|Girl milking a cow by hand]]
Historically, the [[milking]] and the [[Food processing|processing]] took place close together in space and time: on a [[dairy farming|dairy farm]]. People milked the animals by hand; on farms where only small numbers are kept, hand-milking may still be practised. Hand-milking is accomplished by grasping the [[teat]]s (often pronounced ''tit'' or ''tits'') in the hand and expressing milk either by squeezing the fingers progressively, from the [[udder]] end to the tip, or by squeezing the teat between thumb and index finger, then moving the hand downward from udder towards the end of the teat. The action of the hand or fingers is designed to close off the milk duct at the udder (upper) end and, by the movement of the fingers, close the duct progressively to the tip to express the trapped milk. Each half or quarter of the udder is emptied one milk-duct capacity at a time.

The ''stripping'' action is repeated, using both hands for speed. Both methods result in the milk that was trapped in the [[milk duct]] being squirted out the end into a bucket that is supported between the knees (or rests on the ground) of the milker, who usually sits on a low stool.

Traditionally the cow, or cows, would stand in the [[Field (agriculture)|field]] or paddock while being milked. Young stock, [[cattle|heifers]], would have to be trained to remain still to be milked. In many countries, the cows were tethered to a post and milked.