Let’s have modern , accurate milk
BY GEORGE HAENLEIN
Extension Dairy Specialist
University of Delaware
For this first column I’d like to
focus on a problem that’s been
costing dairy farmers money for a
long time - milk fat tests. Or, more
precisely, the correct fat test for a
milk shipment from the farm to the
processing plant.
Let’s assume you have a herd of
100 Holstein cows that produce an
average 40 pounds of milk per cow,
filling your 4,000 pound milk tank
daily. You’ll get 13 cents per pound
for that milk if the fat content is 3.5
percent. This gives you a daily
gross income of $520, from which,
of course, you must pay all your
feed, labor, utilities, veterinarian,
taxes and other expenses.
If the milk in this 4,000 pound
tank tested 4.0 percent instead,
you’d receive $552 - or $32 a day
more - for its contents, because of
the $0.0016 fat differential for each
one-tenth percent milk fat per
pound above the 3.5 percent
standard. Assuming your
production costs remained the
same, this daily increase of $32
would translate into a handsome
$11,680 by the end of the year.
Looked at this way, the fat test
level of the milk in your farm tank
becomes an economic problem of
considerable importance not only
for you, the producer, but also for
the processing plant which buys
milk from you and other farmers.
Accurate test
Considering the money involved,
it’s easy to understand why the
issue of accurate fat tests has been
a bone of contention and suspicion
between the farmer and the
processing plant for a long time.
The controversy is based, of
course, on the fact that fat and
milk don’t normally mix, but
continually separate. The fat, in
the form of cream, rises above the
milk because it’s not soluble in that
aqueous medium and has a lighter
specific gravity. This means it
must be mixed back into the rest of
milk manually or by machine for
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even distribution and for accurate
sampling. It takes time to do this -
at least 5 minutes in a full 4,000
pound tank.
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Milk is hauled from the farm in
tank trucks which pump the farm
tank empty. Before he loads up,
the driver must get an accurate
volume measurement on that milk
and take a sample which will be
analyzed later to determine its fat
content. How does he collect that
sample? Manually, as he and other
drivers have done for the last 30
years.
First, he reads the dipstick in the
quiet tank to record the exact
number of pounds of milk there.
Next, he turns on the agitator to
mix the milk and fat. He must then
wait at least 5 minutes to allow for
complete mixing.
After that he lowers a dipper into
the full tnak and collects his
sample for later laboratory
analysis.
Finally, he’s ready to pump the
tank empty and proceed to the next
farm.
It’s obvious that this manual
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system for recording, sampling
and testing is full of potential
human errors, errors which can
translate into substantial amounts
of money lost by either the farmer
producer or the milk processor.
Given the technical and electronic
capabilities of this space age, it’s
also clear that such manual
procedures are obsolete and need
to be replaced.
So what can be done to solve this
problem?
Get modern
Three industrial milk metering
and flow-thru sampling devices
are already available and in use in
other parts of the world. An orifice
type collecting device called
“Patch” is made and used in
Denmark. A cylindrical sampler
with a diaphragm, “Diessel”, is
made and used in Germany.
A third type called “Isolok”,
made in the U.S., uses the syringe
principle to draw out 3 milliliter
samples from every 50 quarts of
"milk flowing through the pump
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at test
hose from the farm tank to the
truck. This device is officially
approved in the Quebec province of
Canada. In fact, Quebec Depart
ment of Agriculture regulations
require automatic sampling
devices Ull ixu* * milk pickup
trucks.
This device is also widely uscu
now in milk processing plants.
Since its development in 1969, over
600 Isoloks have been installed in
these plants and over 400 are in use
on milk tank trucks. The sampler
has been extensively tested and is
consistently accurate within plus
or minus 0.01% of the true fat test
value. It is easily cleaned with
normal automatic CIP procedures
and has successfully met federal
and local sanitary standards.
With systems like this, it’s no
longer necessary to wait for farm
milk tanks to be agitated for
proper mixing before sampling.
Automatic flow-thru samplers not
(Turn to Page Ell)
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