A farmer and his 16-year-old son Josiah trained their first heifer to milk outside a stanchion by tying her head to a post near the milking area. Moving the post closer limited her head movement and kept her calm enough to milk, even with the dominant cow Vanilla nearby.
Once again, I'm proven wrong by my 16-year-old son, this time with our first-time heifer milk cow. We've been training her to milk in a stanchion that's more secure, but eventually we need to milk her in the field. So we've got to train her to milk just freestyle, tied up to something. Josiah said we should tie her up to this post near where I'm milking Vanilla and it should work. Well, I tried to see if I could even approach her freestyle. I could not. I figured we were done and this wasn't gonna work, but I just said, well, what should we do now, Josiah? He said first let her come to the alfalfa and tie her up. It was tricky, but we did it. Then we had the idea to tie her head closer so she can only go so far. Josiah had me approach her and she roamed around the pole until she finally reached the other milking cow who is dominant and she wasn't about to push through her, and she let me milk her. Yes!
If I had to start my Homestead all over again, it could only pick one animal… 
