I have some issues with leaning into being on this farm, and one of the reasons why is the milking parlor room/milking hygeine/dairy products. I've been milking cows and goats before with varying degrees of cleanliness routines, but always washing with iodine, or at least soapy water, and premilking checking the milk/tasting/looking at it. Here we have two lovely cows and I am now the primary milker in mornings and afternoons. But here we use a wet cloth (today the cloth wasn't even clean cause they hadn't done laundry) and then just a couple squirts without assessing the milk or tasting. and then milking w a little machine, and then the milk goes into a little dairyroom, poured into another milk can. the floor is always so dirty and poopy, cause it's inside the stable, and there are no procedures for changing shoes/keeping it clean in there. other than sweeping the floor after each milking, but it's not really very easy. the milk is also not even sifted, and hot water for dishing the machine afterwards has to be filled in another house and carried over, and it's always not warm enough when dishing comes around. and then the biggest issue is actually the cheeses/products they make out of it, all of it is for consumption on the farm, and I haven't participated in the processing, but the butter is weird and not tasty and we have to be really sparingly using cream and butter bc it has to last the months in winter where there isn't milk. But just, bad dairy products that are not yummy and then cream is a special occasion thing, butter is not for cooking, and all this milk that I handle every day is just lost into this sadness feeling, where on other farms where I was milking, it was just such a different feeling of a really wonderful, precious ingredient and the products were delicious. I guess it's also a feeling of loss of control bc I can't change the milking setup here nor take over cheesemaking... but it adds a lot of resistance internally to being happy here I think.. But in other ways I am satisfied and stimulated and feel like I am learning interesting farming practices

I obviously could just start tasting the premilk, or bringing a little cup to look for clumps, and put soap in the warm water, and somehow keep the dairy clean better, but it's just frustrating as essentially a wwoofer with not a lot of agency