Milking

Milking is the term given to the act of removing milk from the mammary glands of an animal, typically cows (cattle) and sometimes goats. A rarely used term for the milking of cows is vaccimulgence, derived from the Latin words vacca ("cow") and emulgere ("to milk out"). Milking is also used to describe the removal of venom from spiders and snakes, for the production of antivenom.

There are two methods of milking cows: by hand or by machine.

Hand milking is performed by massaging and pulling down on the teats of the cows udder, squirting the milk into a bucket.

A milking machine is designed to extract milk using a vaccum. The teat cups of the machine are attached to the cows teats, the cups alternate between vaccum and normal air pressure to extract the milk without damaging the teats of the cow.