Hi there,
I hope you can help me with a research for a project about how daily milking times have changed over the decades and centuries. I would appreciate thoughts you can share on any of these four questions:
1. What time was milking when you were growing up? Why did you milk at those times? How has that changed?
2. Do you know of any formal histories of how milking times have changed through the centuries? Especially in North-Western Europe.
3. Do you know of any sources that indicate how much autonomy the cow's owner – or individual milkmaids and housewives – had in setting times for their own daily milking routines?
4. And finally, a specific piece of history. I've learned that one of the words for the daily milking time in Irish also means late morning or midday. That suggests the common milking time has changed considerably over the centuries. Could you speculate on the reasons why? Any reflections on this finding from experienced dairy people or historians would be gratefully received.
Many thanks indeed