dry up

verb, to stop milking an animal so that it will not produce milk

“The people, they let the cows dry up in the winter.”

“They dry the cows up maybe November, December, most of them, and start getting them from the factory drover.”

“Yeah, and he worked in a lumber camp the odd winter. ‘Cause see in the wintertime, they used to dry the cows up, eh, and so there wasn’t much to do with the cattle.”