{"id":64680,"date":"2023-10-01T11:03:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T16:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=64680"},"modified":"2026-09-16T20:40:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:40:41","slug":"how-to-milk-a-cow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/skills\/outdoors\/how-to-milk-a-cow\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Milk a Cow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

For most men and boys-soon-to-be-men, long gone are the days when milking a cow was a chore as common as doing the dishes. Now mostly done by high-tech machines at commercial dairies, the task of milking a cow by hand once brought farmers and their families into close bonds with the animals that helped to feed them every day. If you\u2019re a city dweller, it\u2019s unlikely you\u2019ll come across a situation that demands you milk a cow, save for some post-apocalyptic future where healthy, milk-producing dairy cows are readily available, and you\u2019re in desperate need of some ice cream. But that\u2019s not the point. The point is, milking a cow by hand is a tradition deep-rooted in the blood of our agricultural ancestors and learning how to do it is as much about preserving that knowledge as it is about practicing it.<\/p>\n

Illustration by Ted Slampyak<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most men and boys-soon-to-be-men, long gone are the days when milking a cow was a chore as common as doing the dishes. Now mostly done by high-tech machines at commercial dairies, the task of milking a cow by hand once brought farmers and their families into close bonds with the animals that helped to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":64682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42378,42392,42259],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-illustrated-guides","category-outdoors","category-skills"],"featured_image_urls":{"reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-22-at-2.01.29-PM-320x167.png","aesop-tiny-cover":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-22-at-2.01.29-PM-400x208.png","aesop-character":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-22-at-2.01.29-PM-200x200.png","aesop-collection":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-22-at-2.01.29-PM-300x280.png","aesop-grid-image":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-22-at-2.01.29-PM-400x208.png"},"yoast_head":"\nHow 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