Janaki's Udder Test

A one-button game where you flip through each cow's first milk and leave the bad quarter showing before she reaches the gate.

Who this is for

Janaki Desai runs a gaushala on the edge of Junagadh: thirty-eight Gir cows, most of them given up by farmers, and four milkers who start at five in the morning. Last month one cow's back left quarter gave flaky milk for two days before anyone noticed, and that milk went into the can sold to the sweet shop by the temple. The moment for this game is the half hour after evening milking, when the two young milkers sit on the feed sacks with their phones. Janaki would rather they were playing something that trains their eye.

How the job is done today

The oldest milker, Bhikhabhai, squirts the first streams from each teat onto the dark floor and looks before milking. The young ones mostly skip it when the line is long. A printout from the vet, gone soft with damp, is taped to the shed pillar showing clots and watery milk. When something looks wrong, someone photographs the pail and sends it to the vet on WhatsApp. The teaching happens by Bhikhabhai shouting across the shed.

The screens, in order

1. The shed door — Shows your best round and lets the first cow in with one press.
2. The milking line — Is where you press through the first milk from each of the four quarters and leave the one that looks wrong showing as the cow reaches the gate.
3. The reveal — Shows, after each cow, what was really in that milk and which quarter it came from, so a miss still teaches something.
4. End of the line — Tells you how many cows you caught, missed and pulled aside for nothing, and lets one press start again.

What it keeps track of

• Cows — name, which quarter is starting to go wrong or none, how faint the sign is, the drawing of each quarter's first milk
• Rounds — who played, which cows came through, what they left showing at the gate, right or wrong, how fast the line was moving
• Players — name, best round, which signs they miss most often

The one decision that matters

With one button, a press has to both change the view and give an answer. One way is tap to flip views and hold to flag the cow. The other is to let the gate decide: each cow walks slowly along the line, every press flips to the next quarter's first milk and then to a clean pail meaning all clear, and whatever is showing when the cow reaches the gate is your call. Go with the gate. Tap and hold get mixed up on a cheap phone with wet fingers. The gate also turns the whole game into the habit Janaki wants taught: look at all four quarters before the cow moves on.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out any advice on treatment or medicine. The game is for spotting the start of trouble, and a wrong dose picked up from a game could hurt a cow, so that stays with the vet. Also leave out uploading photos of real milk from the shed. Drawn milk can be made clear or faint on purpose, while photos taken in a dim shed would teach the wrong thing.

How you would know it worked

One of the young milkers, without being told, strips the first streams of a cow onto a dark cup during the morning line and calls Janaki over about one quarter before that milk goes into the common can.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a small gaushala near Junagadh and I want a game for my young milkers to play on their phones after evening milking. The whole game uses one button and nothing else. A cow walks slowly toward a gate, and each press flips to the first milk from the next quarter, then to a clean pail that means all clear. Whatever is showing when the cow reaches the gate is the player's answer. Some cows are healthy and some have one quarter just starting to go bad, with small flakes, watery milk or stringy bits, and these signs should get fainter and the cows faster as you keep playing. After each cow, show what was really wrong and in which quarter. At the end, show how many were caught, missed or pulled aside for nothing, and one press starts again. Use drawings, not photos, and do not give any treatment advice.