Milking the Cows

Official Selection to the Once a Week Online Film Festival 2011 http://onceaweekfilmfest.weebly.com/

part 23 in an ongoing series of films recording life in a small Croatian village. Changes are rapidly occurring in the village and this series is an attempt to record these changes before a whole way of life is lost.

Written and produced by Andrew Norris.

The lowing of a cow can be heard at various times throughout the day and when it's heard at one house a corresponding reply echos across the valley from one of the few remaining households where a cow is still maintained. It has a melancholic ring as if the animal itself is lamenting the decline in the number of livestock in the village.

It can still be remembered how every house would keep a cow and how it would be taken out to graze. These days, however, the cow remains in the barn and several times a day feed is brought to the animal instead. But Bara can still remember some of the songs she would sing as a child as she led the cattle to pasture, it is a style of singing that is rarely heard today.

At our end of the village there remain just four cows. And whether one is watching Bara, or Angelka or Marica at work the technique of milking has remained unchanged for centuries and it is particularly satisfying to hear the sound of warm milk splashing into a pail.

Quantities of milk vary but a few litres daily is usually sufficient for a family's needs for drinking or for making into cheese.

But one does wonder for how long the cow will be a feature in the village. Where mechanisation made the bullock redundant it is economics again that will soon make milking, like the production of wool before, a thing of the past, and with it the life of the small-scale farmer will be further eroded with the loss of yet another traditional skill.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• cheese
• butter
• ice cream
• powder
• cottage
• margarine
• yogurt
• whey
• evaporated
• calcium
• vitamin d
• udders
• cattle
• dairy
• herd
• calf
• hormone
• bovine
• monsanto
• growth
• mad cow
• farm
• tractor
• documentary
• short
• film
• video
• narration
• voice over
• old lady
• farmer
• pig
• cows
• goat
• farming
• chicken
• pull
• sheep
• lagoon
• pulling
• harvest
• agriculture
• corn
• goats

[andrewnorris2]

@mikwid Thanks for your comment. I am trying to film as much as I can from our village. If only I had had a camera 20 years ago, it was like a different century then. Still, better now than never. My site has many more such films from our village if you are interested. Best to you, Andrew

P.S. That cheese is wonderful.

[andrewnorris2]

@cscdigitalgraphics Thanks for your kind comment, there are many more such films from our village on my site. Best to you, Andrew

[cscdigitalgraphics]

Great documentary of a lifestyle that is simple and good.

[nikitadaharwal]

Nice work...liked it

[andrewnorris2]

@mikwid Thanks for your comment. This film is part of a growing series of films, 36 to date, documenting changes taking place in our small Croatian village. I hope you might find some time to view others. You might like the one on distilling plum brandy! Oh, and by the way, the cheese is excellent. Thanks again

[FluffyJetProductions]

A different way of life....a different mindset....a different sense of freedom

[mikwid]

Really enjoyed this film! You do good things by getting down on film what may become a lost way of life. Ironic, isn't it? when so many are wanting to go back to simpler times. Ah, what I wouldn't give for a bite of that fresh cheese!

[IFknHateUTube]

it sure would be fun to pull tits for a living. simpler times.

[EasyRecipesWithTwist]

@andrewnorris2 You know after I watched it I know how to make feta cheese! And I'll make it for my family and make a video! Thanks

[andrewnorris2]

@SuperXavier30 Ah, we all need to dance but yes, there should also be room for other things. Thanks for your kind comment onmy film.