6
—LancasJec;Faming/Saturday/'February; J963' '■
• DHIA Tester
(Continued from Page 1)
tie farmer has. If he expects
them to do him any good he
has -to make use of them.”
Risser checked his scales to
make sure they legistered
"zero”, and by the time the
first milker pail was full, he
was ready with his 20-quatt
bucket.
He weighed the milk from
the first cow, entered the wei
ght on his charts and then stir
red the milk -thoroughly before
dipping his sample. Accurate
sampling is just as important
as accurate testing Risser be
lieves. "You can make an accu
rate butterfat test, but if you
don’t haie a representative
sample, you won’t get a -tiue
picture.” he said.
The sample went into a num
bered bottle and Risser carried
the milk to the bulk tank in
the milk house.
By the time he returned, an
other milker pail was ready
and the process was repeated.
He had little time to loiter be
tween cows, but he worked
THE FIRST THING JAY RISSER does when he
arrives at a farm to collect milk samples is to get
freshening,-breeding, and dry dates on each of the cows
from the farmer’s barn charts. He transfers this infor
mation to the record which he sends to Penn State. It
then becomes part of the permanent record on the
herd. L. F. Photo.
ACCURATE SAMPLING IS JUST AS important
as accurate testing, Risser believes. He stirs the milk
well in the pail before collecting a dipper full. If the
milking hours vary from morning to night, he takes a
larger sample from the larger milking. L. F. Photo.
carefully and accurately,
By shortly after 7 o’clock the
2S Holsteins were milked and
the sample box closed. Risser
took the home where
he would st re them in a cool
well pit overnight to keep them
from spoiling. He also took the
Landis Herd book along with
him to enter the permanent re
cords which would be returned
to the farmer next morning.
At 5 30 a m. next morning we
were in the bain again where
much the same routine took
place, except, this time he pre
sented the bill and collected a
check before leaving.
Conversation in the,, barn
ranged over a wide scope, but
centered mainly around dairy
ing and milk testing. Risser re
counted some of his experienc
es as a tester for two years m
Washington and in Lancaster
County for the past eight
years He has been head tester
in the Red Rose DHIA for the
past two years. Since Landis
was formerly a cow tester, he
had shared many of the same
experiences of living with farm
families, and they enti ,:ned
. nje quite well -pith .amusing ac->
>- ; c6unts of-their early days in'
testing.
Risser took the sample bottle
wife-to-be. in a church in Wash
ington County while he was
testing there. Her father was
a dairyman, but his. farm was
not in Risser’s area.
We stopped on the way home
to pick up a tray of samples
from the farm of Jacob Hess,
a neighbor of Landis, who is
on the Owner-Sampler pro
giam. Hess weighs and samp
les his own milk and keeps his
own feed records Risser tests
the samples and figures the in
dividual cow’s record just as
he does for the regular DHIA
pations The Owner-Sampler
records are not official, but they
aie a good guide for the farm
er who wants a record for his
own use. Risser has almost'3o
of these herds under test at
present.
After a delicious breakfast
of 'eggs and sausage with the
Rissers, I was introduced to
the real job of the DHIA sup
ervisor. In the basement of his
comfortable home, Risser has
set up a laboratory where.he
“runs” the samples.
Riser took the sample bottle
numbered “one” and agitated
it thoroughly to make sure the
cream was well mixed with the
milk. He poured it back and
forth in two clean sample bot
tles to complete the mixing and
drew exactly 17 5 cubic centi
meters into a pipette, and then
transferred it to the thin-neck
ed test bottle. After all the 56
samples had been pipetted into
the test bottles, he added a like
amount of sulfuric acid to the
milk samples and shook the
trays to mix the acid and milk.
The samples turned a rich cof
fee color as the acid digested
the protein and other solids
not-fat The digestion made the
test bottles so warm that they
could not be held in the hand.
Twenty four of the samples
went into the centrifuge at one
time The centrifuge is a mach
ine that spins the bottles at a
high rate of speed to push the
heavy acid and digested milk
solids t 6 the bottom of the bot-,
tel and bring the dissolved but
terfat to the top. After five
minutes in the centrifuge, each
bottle got enough hot water to
bring the level of the sample
to the bottom of the neck. Af
ter another two minutes of
spinning the bottles were filled
with enough hot water to bring
the entire fat content into the
neck of the bottle.
Another minute of centrifug
ing, and the samples were
ready for a hot "water bath.
Butterfat expands and con
tracts with temperature chang
es, so in order to get an ac
curate' reading, Risser keeps
the samples in the hot water
bath for five minutes With the
aid of a pair of wing dividers,
he measures the height of the
fat column in the neck of the
test bottle and reads the but
terfat percentage directly from
the graduations on the bottle
neck
After all the tests had been
entered on the record sheets,
Risser emptied the test and
sample bottles and thoroughly
washed all glassware. He
made sure all bottles weie
turned upside down for thoi
ough diying
By this time it was past mid
morning and the daily leport
to be sent to Penn State for
electionic processing had still
to be completed While Jav
completed the “IBM” sheets tor
mailing, his wife, Lois Ann,
worked on the monthly news
letter of completed lactations
ovei 350 pounds and the mon
thly herd a\erages over 35
pounds which is-sent to all
members of the assoc iation.
By noon, all the paper work
was completed and after call-
(continued on page ( 7) }!il i
AFTER THE,, MILK HAS BEEN sampled, Risser
carries it to the milk, house and pours it into the bulk
tank. Here at the-farm of'Jay Landis, Lancaster R 6, he
strains milk from one cow while Landis milks another.
L. F. Photo!
CAREFUL MEASURING OF THE TEST SAMPLE
assures an. accurate butterfat test. Here Risser draws
17.5 cubic centimeters of milk into a pipette for trans
fer from the sample bottle to the test bottle. Milk must
be kept from souring until the test is completed.
AN EQUAL QUANTITY OF ACID is added to the I
milk. The sulfuric acid digests the protein and other |
solids-not-fat, leaving the butterfat to rise in the neck |
of the test bottle after a spin in a high speed centrifuge. I
L. F. Photo. |
-. I 4 r * s
H ■ r « t r
L. F. Photo.
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