The milky way to our tables

Milk is vital to one's development and physical maintenance and most wake up to find a carton waiting for them at the breakfast table little realising where it actually comes from.

However, a festa, dedicated specifically to the product yesterday helped re-establish this connection, giving people and, especially, young people the opportunity to mingle with the animals that produce milk and the various products that are made from it.

The square in Għargħur, where the festival was held, was packed with people drawn in by the mooing of cows and the tempting milk-based delicacies like ravjul and ġbejniet.

The weather helped draw the crowds but the star attraction were, without doubt, the animals, some of them real and others not so much - like a plastic cow, which children were encouraged to "milk". Others watched in awe as farmers did the real thing, a tricky endeavour which is only made to look easy thanks to experience.

Besides being a fun activity that proved to be very successful, the event, organised by the Rural Affairs Ministry and the Għargħur local council was meant to showcase something of a renaissance in milk production.

Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino the other day visited an innovative farm that affords its 200 cows and 180 calves to the equivalent of five-star treatment, knowing that happier cows will give more milk.

Not only can the cows eat when they feel like and sleep on mattresses rather than a stone bed, they can even go for a massage when the stress of milk production becomes too much.

The farm is investing €120,000 in a robot-operated milking system, which will mean cows can go for milking any time they wished.