A day in the life of a milk recorder has changed somewhat since Tom Gray was doing the job. Tom (88) started on the job back in 1949, after serving his national service in the Airforce. Back then, the training for a milk recorder was three weeks in Auchincruive, which ended when you sat an exam and that was that.

Tom was born in Huntly, and retains his northern accent, even though he now lives in Stonehouse. He started his working career in East Kilbride with the Scottish Milk Records Association, with around 20 farms to record. It was up to the individual farmer whether you recorded or not in those day, it depended on whether the farmer saw the need for the herd to have figures at hand. I ask what the benefit of recording was.

“It would be to let them know which ones were their better cows, which ones they should be breeding from, and which ones you should be kicking down the road. A large herd back then would be 60-70. Not like these days, when a big herd would be around 300.”

His working day started at the evening milking, when he would weigh every individual cow in the evening and take a sample. He would then stay overnight on the farm, and in the morning he would do the same thing, weigh and take another sample which was placed in the same bottle. “I would then test it for the butterfat content and keep records of the yields and build up their lactation records,” says Tom. This was repeated every 25 days at each farm. “I was living 20 different lives,” says Tom, “with 20 different beds!”

In his career, Tom has covered a lot of Scotland, and knew many farmers from all over the country. He covered the Eaglesham district, where he stayed for 10 years before a supervisor’s post came up which took him to Peebles. While there he covered the Lothians, Borders, and Lesmahagow. “I was driving 40k miles a year, but the roads where much quieter then,” he adds. He wasn’t doing the whole district himself, he was in charge of eight or nine recorders by then. He stayed there for two years before a job back up north, where he was born, came up. This was in 1960, and being back in Huntly suited him well.

Now his area was Banffshire, Aberdeenshire, Kincardineshire, Angus and Perth, and he doubts that people today would put the miles in that he was asked to do. He had up to 200 clients at this point. But it was also around this time that technology was coming into the dairy business.

“In the early days the milk equipment was a three legged stool and a luggie (bucket) to hand milk your cows. Then it went to milking machines and the milk was carried in a ten gallon can to be put through the cooler. Then in the 1950s the milk was being put onto a pipeline directly into the tank.

“When the 1960/70s came along there was a change from byres to courts and cubicles, bigger farms were already further ahead but it took a while for everyone else to catch up.

“The job remained much the same mind you, looking after all the different recorders, listening to moans and groans from the farmers, I probably shouldn’t say that,” he smiles.

He did notice a lot of changes over the years, in the early days there were no Holsteins. It was Friesians, Ayrshires, and Jerseys. The Holsteins were just coming into the country. That would be around the 1980/90s, which made a difference to the yields.

He adds: “The life span of the cows went down. These cows were milk machines, but they didn’t last long. An Ayrshire would have given you eight to nine lactations, but Holsteins were giving just three or four lactations. The turnover was quite high from what I remember.”

Back in the 1950s Tom recalls a good yield being around six to seven gallons, by the time he retired in 1991 it would have been around 11 gallons. Due mainly to the influence of the Holsteins. The yields had nearly doubled from what they used to be.

“Yields now can be around 40 litres, which is more than eight gallons. Long ago an eight gallon cow was one in a thousand nearly. You can hardly believe what cows can give now. They are skin and bone from what I can see.

“I think the dairy heyday is long gone, it’s been downhill for a long time. There are lots of farmers not getting much more than they were getting 20 odd years ago.”

It is changed days for the recorders of today. Nowadays it is all computerised, testing is done in laboratories, however Tom remembers having to carry the equipment with him - the centrifuges, the acid, pipettes. Though it was the farmer’s responsibility to shift the equipment to the next farm for him before he arrived. “When I worked in East Kilbride there was one farmer who moved the equipment on his horse and cart. It was like the stone age when I think about it.”

Back in 1986 Tom recalls a highlight of his career was when he was rewarded for his services to agriculture by the Royal Norther Agricultural Society. It was a prestigious award and he was proud to receive it. “It was a boost at the time,” he says.

“I was secretary of the Holstein Friesian Club in the NE, and I was also recording goats and would help at goat shows, but I think the HF Society would have nominated me for the award. I had to do a speech, and I’m not a natural public speaker, but it had to be done.”

He hands me a pile of notes from his speech, which he has kept all these years. He tells me some of the names of the men he worked alongside and under while working up north.

“I remember JB Paterson, Ken Robertson, Brian Speight, then Jack Lawson, who was head of Scottish Milk Records just as I was leaving. I worked with the area secretary Bob May, as well as Mr Wood, who was a very shrewd man who made money for the society.”

He also enjoyed his time with the North East of Scotland Friesians Breeders Club. “I was a member and also the secretary of the society for a number of years which I remember fondly.”

Another regular activity that was going on around that time was farm walks.

“They usually started around May time, and farmers would gather at a particular farm and walk through the herd of cows, basically taking them to bits,” he laughs.

“It was a popular thing to do, to go to someone else’s farm and have a nosy. You would get a cup of tea and a wee drink. It was quite a job to get folk to take you on their farm, mind you. There was always a bit of tidying up to be done. The Holstein Club would hold a stock judging in the morning then you would go somewhere for your lunch. It was just a good day out.”

When he looks back he does notice a lot of changes in the dairy industry. The most obvious one being the size of herds. They have tripled in size over the last 60 years.

He also mentions the change of feeding from hay to silage, which was definitely a change for the better. “It will be 60 years since the silage started really. It was all hay at that time. Silage is a better feed and quicker to make. When you were making hay you had to go out and look up at the sky and hope for the best.

Another change is the quota system. “The milk quota – it was calculated on what your average production for the year was, and you got quota for that. If you went over you get penalised financially. However, you could lease it to someone else. If you went out of dairying you sold your herd of cows and your quota too. It was worth a lot of money. Out in Canada, quota is worth a ridiculous amount of money.”

Tom finally retired in 1991 just as the computerisation of milk records was coming in which spelled the end of the recorders staying on farms overnight. He was diagnosed with diabetes which affected his eyesight which meant he couldn’t drive anymore.

Tom concludes: “Two days were never the same for me when I was working. You were involved in the lives of these farmers, I was living 20 different lives, and were mostly treated as one of the family. Well, some places treated you like family, and some places you were just there to do a job. You had to be easy-oasy to fit in and adapt to each family, but I made a lot of friends along the way.”

Pic is Tom’s wife Hannah along with Willie Mackie, chairman of North of Scotland Milk Records.