MOO News issue VII - Spring 2026

Without a doubt, the one thing visitors ask the most about is how to milk a cow.  Our youngest visitors envision sitting on a stool against the side of a cow, bending over and milking by hand. Our older visitors often know there were machines to milk a cow, exactly how, they aren’t sure, but there has to be a machine. Our exhibit on milking cows has improved immensely over the last year and has become much more hands on!

Right from the earliest days of the MOOseum, visitors have had the opportunity to hand milk a model cow, observe early models of milking machines, and a robotic milker. Plus, lots of other equipment, the farmer would use to get, move and process the milk.

 About a year and a half ago several Board of Director members took a field trip to Turkey Hill Experience! – as in Turkey Hill ice cream – in Columbia, Pennsylvania.  We were blown away with their exhibits and vowed to improve the MOO’s exhibit on milking of cows. If looking for a not too far field trip, we highly recommend Turkey Hill Experience in Columbia,  Pennsylvania.

Exhibit Improvements

Come in this spring and you will see a clearer, more explicit exhibit on milking cows, starting again with milking by hand which James & Macie King must have done when they moved to their farm in 1913, and is now South Germantown Recreation Park. The exhibit finishes with an early model robotic milker and now includes a hands on experience; that is what the cow feels during milking. .

Robotic Vacuum Milker Experience

With the help of the professional dairy firm of Fisher & Thompson, Inc., a vacuum milker was attached to a cow udder model used by agriculture/veterinary schools so our visitors could observe the gentle, pulsation the cow experiences when she is being milked.  

For the visitor to actually feel the working part of the milking machine, a teat cup was attached via a hose to the milking vacuum line, and extended to the visitor space.  Next the docent will place the teat cup on the visitors hand so you feel the pull of the vacuum. Then visitors gently slip their finger – thumbs seem to work best – into the teat cup and feel both the pull of the vacuum and the pulsation that allows milk to exit the teat, and the pulsation of the liner that massages the teat to prevent tissue congestion.  

Visitors are usually amazed that these actions are so gentle.  No fluid – milk or water – is used in the  demonstration – just air and the vacuum milker.

Signage is still being finalized as our visitors have a wide variety of interest in how exactly does the milk come out of the cow – from folks barely interested to folks who want to know every details.