He moved a rake around the barn stall where they kept the cows. He had learned quite a lot about dairy farming in a week. It amazed him how much happened during the milking. They milked thirty-two cows at a time, sixteen in each parlor, and it took less than ten minutes per cow. When one finished, it was removed, and another cow took its place. The manure was collected from the stalls the cows were kept in and shipped to Ash Beckett for his crops.
Abe had explained that it was a never-ending cycle. Rory used milking machines because they were quicker andcleaner. Both milking parlors were constantly working, and they were always busy.
Rory used what was called a herringbone parlor. The cows are in rows, side to side, like a parking lot. Cattle are at forty-five-degree angles away from the machine, allowing for a unique access angle for milkers and farmhands to arrange different equipment near the cows.
Most dairy cows spend their days in free-stall barns because they have free choice of any stall they want to lie down in. Not only that, but they are never more thana few steps away from their food. They bedded stalls with straw sand, rubber mattresses or even water beds. Fans are in the barns to keep cows cool and grooved floors to prevent slipping when they are on the move.A milking machine with four rubber-lined cups fit over each cow’s teats and pumped the milk into atank.The action of the cups imitates the sucking of a calf so that it doesn’t hurt the cow. They cleaned the teats with an iodine and water solution.
Once the collecting tank was full, the milk traveled by a vacuum pipeline to a refrigerated storage tank in another room. When milk first comes out of a cow, it’s warm and must cool down, then kept below forty degrees in a cooling tank, or else it would spoil.
Wilder knew a lot about animals, but this was all new. It shocked him at just how much went on.
He saw Rory a few times over the week, but she worked alongside the men, so he didn’t get to talk with her.
That could be a good thing because she was too beautiful to be around and not let her know he wouldn’t mind getting to know her. Once all of this was over, he’d be able to. It had been a long time since he’d been this interested in a woman. Buster caught him staring at her a few times, and he’d just get back to work, but Wilder noticed she couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off him either. There was something there, but it didn’t look like they would do anything about it… yet.
Wilder had been in a committed relationship two years ago, and he thought they’d get married, but it fell apart, and he was never sure why. Although he had tried to make it work, it didn’t seem like Tammy was interested anymore.
For two years, he only dated. No woman held his interest long enough to make it more. But Rory Heston might change his mind. However, being on a job made it near impossible to get involved with her. And his boss would have a fit.
The one thing stressed, other than wearing the protective vest, was getting involved with anyone on the job. The department thought it would be too distracting.Distracting? What a damn understatement.
Wilder didn’t know Rory’s age, but he’d put her in her late twenties, early thirties. She was a beautiful woman, and it was a little tricky concentrating on his job when she was close to him.
Blowing out a breath, he continued to clean the stalls and put fresh hay down. He knew he needed to speak with Rory. He put the rake away once he finished the last stall, pulled off his leather gloves, placed them in the tack room, and headed out of the barn to one of the milking parlors. But Hal told him she was in the house. Taking a deep breath, he headed in that direction.