 Hand-milking is accomplished by grasping the teats (often pronounced "tit" or "tits") in the hand and expressing milk either by squeezing the fingers progressively, from the udder end to the tip, or by squeezing the teat between thumb and index finger, then moving the hand downward from udder towards the end of the teat.The action of the hand or fingers is designed to close off the milk duct at the udder (upper) end and, by the movement of the fingers, close the duct progressively to the tip to express the trapped milk.Each half or quarter of the udder is emptied one milk-duct capacity at a time.