h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Got sent one of those silly exam answer emails the other day which got me wondering.
One of the questions was 'A way to keep milk fresh'
The given answer was 'Leave it in the cow'.

Now, forgetting for the moment that cows need to be milked due to continued production of milk even when full (we'll assume for argument that this is not a factor and cows can be left unmilked for any length of time with no adverse effect on them) would the milk in the cow actually remain fresh? Would the cow's immune system combat any bacterial growth in the milk or would it still go off?

I've never heard anything so utterly ridiculous in my life. "Leave it in the cow".

If you discount all requirements for milking the cow one could assume that the milk in the udder would go through a continuous cycle of renewal therefore remaining fresh.

In the real world the cow would stop producing milk pretty quickly.

t.

In RL I should think the cow would start to 'leak'



what a cruel idea anyway...

Exactly so. It is the same for any nursing female mammal. Absent the stimulus of nursing/milking, the teats will ooze some at first, then the glands will dry up until the next pregnancy.


HN

and can 'dried' milk really count as 'fresh' ?

*winces in sympathy for the cow*

Cows are 'fine-tuned' to produce loads of milk, far more than they'd produce to naturally feed calves. I've seen - and heard - cows when milking was (slightly?) late, trying to push their way into a milking shed. Their distress was obvious.

There'd be a risk of mastitis and e coli infection etc too trying to leave it in the cow.

This is definitely a pro-cow thread !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2TZc0r2ba0

self-milking cow !

Most likely a cow in dire need of being milked. When the udders are overfilled they start to leak.

At least that what Nan said, and she spent most of her life milking and tending cows.

no in fact, a cow which spurts on its own

"There'd be a risk of mastitis and e coli infection etc too trying to leave it in the cow."

Thanks Jack - an actual answer to the question! So basically, no, it wouldn't remain fresh, there'd be infection and whatnot. I suspected as much (all other obvious things notwithstanding).