So when in history do you think people start milking cows?

Question

Think about it: Going up to an entirely different species and pulling on its nipples. We take it for granted these days, but it had to start sometime.

Answer 1

my best guess would be during the neolithic, as it was when the cow was domesticated. i don't doubt that it was very rapidly used for milk production.
A hint suggesting that drinking cow milk was adopted very early is simply that some people have the ability to digest it. Globally it is not common. But the fact that it is very common in some regions (as in europe, for example) indicates that it must be quite old as it takes time for such a change in the genome of a population to take place.
So, without checking I'd say milking cows began about 10.000 years ago, probably in the middle east.

Answer 2

People had a much different relationship with animals and their environment 10000 years ago. These were survival issues, not moral or sexual issues. They knew of nursing and probably and correctly understood the value of the milk of other animals. It is also highly unlikely that the human nipple was considered erotic in these circumstances.
Cows can store a large amount of nutrients and convert plant energy that is not available to humans. This was likely a huge advance allowing people to live in areas of sporadic food availability.

Answer 3

People started milking cows at the beginning of the Neolithic Age, when people started farming animals rather than just hunting wild animals. This happened in the Middle East in about 10,000 BC, but it was later in other places. In Ireland, for example, the Neolithic didn't start until 4,000 BC.

Answer 4

I believe that it happend shortly after the discover of the fermentation process and the ability to make alcoholic beverages.

Drunk Caveman 1: "I'll bet you a chunk of raw meat that you won't rrrun up under that animal, squeeze that thing hanging down and drink whatever comes out."

Drunk Caveman 2: "You're on."

Actually, with the domestication of animals some tens of thousands of years ago, even without language it would have been easy to understand the nutritional source after noting the similarity of feeding methods between humans (or proto-humans) and other mammalian species.

Long time ago, I bet.