With just two cows, we also milked by hand after washing the udders with a hose of course. Nevertheless, the cows had tails which they swished around, they shook themselves, et c. during milking, which got dirt into the open pail. One cow named Vicky, which was polled (thank God), swung around one time when I was milking her and butted me up against the side of the stall so hard I couldn’t catch my breath for a minute. Yes, dirt got into the milk. We screened out the dirt through a lawn filter. I don’t know how your grand parents avoided it. Machine milkers must be cleaner.
My grandfather was a microbiologist who ran a government animal experiment station in the Chevy Chase area of D. C. during the early past of the last century. His work with Emil Berliner (the inventor of the flat phonograph disc), and others, promoted the pasteurization of milk. His experiments with bovine tuberculosis probably led to his death in his fifties.
By the way, a study in Ireland has raised some questions about the effectiveness of testing cattle for
Mycobacterium bovis (
http://www.bovinetb.info/testing.php).
Well, where there’s will, there’s away. I do recall that the cows tails were not particularly long, and the floor was concrete in the milking room.
Of course, the cows were also given feed during milking. Their head went into a v shaped contraption. After they were in there, the board was moved and secured, so that the space was too small for them to pull their head out.
The door was shut after they came in, and there wasn’t a bunch of dust or wind or anything, so maybe that was the secret. They did milk by hand after the udders were cleaned.
Papa’s cousin had a big operation with machines, and that place was even cleaner, and I recall seeing how the machines worked, there was stainless steel and concrete every where, so I expect that it was even less of a problem.
I personally feel that there are adequate reasons to approach drinking raw milk with caution, but I also believe that adults should be able to make that decision for themselves and their families, and the raids on farms in an abuse of the Federal Government’s power. YMMV