Bill Herr: "I milked 40 head of cows before I went to school in the morning"
For more information about "Bluffton Anthology" click here.
Bill Herr remembers: We had dairy, hogs, and 200 over Leghorn chickens. When I was a senior in high school I milked 40 head of cows before I went to school in the morning. In 1964, when we finally sold the cattle we had 37 cows.
Don Herr describes the milking process: We’d milk twice a day. We had a pipe line. We had a milking parlor. We’d walk in six cows and would milk three at once. While three were being milked the other three would wait.
The milkers would set underneath the cows and when they were done we’d swing them over to the next cows. We had a 3700 gallon tank where we stored the milk. It was big enough that we had to build an extension on to the milk house to get it in there.
A good cow in a day’s time will give 7 to 14 gallons of milk. Before we acquired the tank, we stored the milk in 10-gallon cans in a big cooler.
This is a sample of the content of "Bluffton Anthology - A creek runs through it." Copies are now available for $24.95 plus tax in Bluffton at:
• Roots by Strattons
• The Food Store
• The Black Lab
• Bluffton Senior Citizens Center
• The Dough Hook
• Polished
• The Inn at ONU, Ada
Stories Posted This Week
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Monday, August 24, 2026
Sunday, August 23, 2026
Saturday, August 22, 2026
Friday, August 21, 2026
- Marjorie Jean (Reams) Montgomery was a homemaker
- Meet the Bluffton Pirate football team, Fall 2026
- Ada Icon stories posted this week, August 17-21
- Aug. 22 Bluffton Cars & Coffee reminder
- Pirate girls soccer shuts out Anna in home opener
- Pirate volleyball win vs. Wildcats
- Pirate boys soccer rallies past Archbold
- Capture the essence of Bluffton in photos
- Pirate girls golf places 9th at SJCC Invite
- Call for actors for Dillinger reenactment on October 10