If milk is being delivered at 2.30am what on earth time are they milking the cows?

Shrub

Birds used to peck the tops off milk to get to the cream. Now milk is homogenised the cream is no longer at the top so they don't do it!

My (whole organic) milk isn't homogenised. It is very rich and creamy especially in late spring/early summer months and still has a thick layer of cream on top.

Supermarket milk is generally homogenised I've found - even most of the organic offerings.

Strangely though I've not had a bird peck the lid for years!

4 year old thread

My neighbour has her milk delivered. Often see the milkman just about 10pm as i close the bedroom curtains.

I haven't had milk delivered, or even seen a milkman, for years.

At a farm near my friend they are often milking after midnight. Why, she doesn’t know.

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Four o'clock the previous afternoon, would be my guess.

That is if it's fresh milk.

www.milkandmore.co.uk/ is a company, if you are looking for an independent milkman try your local Facebook group or perhaps just ask around. My milk comes from a local farm.

Our milkman lives on Paradise Farm. He delivers eggs as well. He has never missed even in heaviest snow and I use an insulated milk container so it doesn't freeze in winter.

Perhaps I’m not discerning enough
Jane Possibly, because UHT milk is excellent, having a guaranteed shelf life of 9 months. That's all I buy and never had a single drop "go off!"!

We avoid the road around 4.30 on the edge of the town as thats when the cows are moved across it for milking,I get that milk delivered about 2am the next day.I get fruit juices ,eggs ,butter,cream,potatoes and several other things delivered with the milk.Order before 6pm and its there when I wake up

We must be lucky. Our milk’s delivered at around 6 o’clock. It’s from a local dairy, in glass bottles, our milkman’s lovely, and we can order other items at short notice if we’re stuck. It’s a great service.

My milk delivery service has been brilliant during this period. They will deliver much more than milk these days. I wish I could advertise them on here as they didn’t come up on geekesse site.

You can find out here if doorstep delivery is available To your address:

www.milkandmore.co.uk/

I was reading this and have never had a milkman for years how lovely in these times to hear they are still about. I would support them if I knew how to.

Milk is one of the “loss leaders” that supermarkets use to get customers through the doors along with sliced bread, beans and several others.

Not all milk is homogenised, though supermarket milk often is. My doorstep milk (normal and gold top) has a nice thick layer of cream :-). It comes in recycled glass bottles, and it keeps a local business trading. The supermarkets use their buying muscle to bully farmers into accepting the lowest price for their milk, and then much of the profit goes to the supermarket instead of the producer, so I prefer not to collude with that form of exploitation.

The milk is collected from farms once a day.
Some farms milk 3 times, some twice.
My husband gave up soon after his employer started the 3times/day regime.
Too stressful in his opinion, for the men and the cows, most farmers think that their staff are robots.
Not all of course, my DH had two excellent employers during his career.

I agree with you midgey. Many supermarkets bang their own drum regarding how wonderful they are at supporting coffee farmers, banana farmers etc abroad through the Fairtrade scheme yet they dont believe our farmers should have a fair price for their products.
The consumers also play a part in demanding cheap milk whilst paying £2/3 for less than half a pint of takeaway coffee.
We need to be fair to our farmers.

If you buy milk from the supermarket the price paid to farmers is ridiculously low. If we want milk to continue to be produced in this country we should buy from an independent source.

Many cows are milked 3 times a day equally spaced, others are milked by robot - the cow visits the “ milker” when she feels like it. However milk is collected from farms once a day, allowing time for transport, bottling and distribution its likely to be yesterday’s milk.

If you want today’s milk some farms have vending machines. Hygiene and refrigeration has improved greatly at all levels, so if it is kept in the fridge at home it lasts a week and more.

The cows have probably been milked 2 or 3 days previously. These days cows are milked on farm twice a day, but milk is stored on farm at chilled tanks for 2-3 days before being collected by large tanker and taken for processing. Because of low temperatures and excellent hygiene on farms nowadays, there are very low numbers of bacteria, and pasteurisation kills 95% of those, so milk lasts much longer than it used to, when hygiene was poorer.

However, if milk is sitting in warm temperatures on a doorstep, the bacteria remaining will start multiplying and the milk may not last nearly as long as milk bought chilled in supermarket and put straight in fridge. However, those who find it convenient to get milk delivered, will probably use it quickly anyway.

Insulated container as grannysyb suggests might help in warm weather.

Susan56

I would think it’s milk from yesterday afternoons milking.Our son in law has a dairy farm,they milk twice a day 4.30am and pm.??

That’s what I thought! (In answer to OP’s question)

We arranged deliveries from a national firm but have stopped because they left the milk on the doorstep which gets the early sun, despite being asked to leave it is a shaded spot. We had to throw some away. They made three mistakes in the order, so now I get milk via my veg box man. It comes during the day time when I can take it in straightaway. Doesn’t have as long a shelf life as the other but is fine.