Resident revisits treasured childhood memories of milking cows

Judy Price and some of her fellow residents enjoyed a fun day out at a dairy farm, reliving childhood memories and even experiencing milking the cows

Our companion Elise Woolnough said: “Several of our residents grew up on or around farms and have happy memories of the animals, farm life and the countryside.

“Judy in particular, often talks and reminisces about her days as a young girl taking family holidays at a farm in Somerset, where she would ride horses, play with dogs and milk the cows.

“When she said she would love to have one more opportunity to milk a cow if she could, we looked around for a place to do this.

“As you would imagine, most farms have stopped milking cows by hand these days. But we were thrilled to find a local dairy farm, Holfleet Dairy based in Bockhampton near Dorchester, which was happy for us to visit and see how milking is now done.

Holfleet Dairy is home to over 400 cows, of which 350 are milked twice daily. Much of this milk is supplied to Marks & Spencer.

Elise said: “All the residents were very interested to see how times and technology have moved on.

“We were invited up to the milking platform where we were able to watch the cows being milked, hear about the different equipment and basically enjoy a masterclass in all things cattle!”

Judy was also invited to assist in milking one of the cows.

She said: “I used to milk the cows by hand. But I imagine it would be very difficult to milk so many cows twice a day by hand!”

Judy trained as a doctor but said if she hadn’t entered medicine she would have loved to work on a farm.

“This has brought back many memories of my days in Somerset and has made me very happy.” she added.

Fellow Avon Cliff resident, Jo Hart said: “The trip to the farm was very interesting. I loved seeing young people so passionate about what they do and sharing so much interesting information with us. I also love cows – so this was a great day out for me!”