Practical Methods of Cooling Milk on the Farm

Farmers are often accused of showing a lack of business instinct. It is certain that no successful business man would handle his products in the way some farmers handle theirs. This is particularly noticeable in connection with the handling of milk produced on dairy farms and one cannot help but be surprised that dairymen allow themselves to be so careless as to produce milk at considerable cost and have it turned back from the factory because it is too warm or has soured. No principle of good business can be found that will provide an excuse for for this kind of negligence and one is inclined to say that there is no excuse whatever for milk souring on the farm before it can be delivered to the factory.

In spite of this a great deal of milk is delivered in an acid condition, especially in hot weather; and even as early as the middle of May when the weather is still cool some milk must be turned away because it is not fit for manufacturing purposes. Produces now argue that the present costs for milk barely, if they do actually, return the cost of production. This being so each 100 pounds returned from the factory as spoiled costs the producer the whole selling price of the milk less its value as pig feed, which will rarely exceed one quarter the whole value of the milk for manufacturing purposes. In many cases there are no hogs on the farm to use it profitably, under which circumstances the loss is a wholesale one. We have in mind one in stance which was given us by the manager of a large condensery last year when in the month of June fully 18,000 pounds were turn down on a Monday morning. Milk was selling at that time for $2.40 net to the producer which meant a loss to that farming community from the 18,000 pounds of spoiled milk of at least $300, allowing for the value of the milk as pig feed, and at least $425 if it was thrown away. June was of course, very hot last year but it is safe to assume that this occurrence was repeated at least several times during the season with a loss to the produces of some thousands of dollars all told. Probably 400 dairymen are patrons of that condensery so that one does not need to use much imagination to estimate what loss occurs over the Province of Ontario or Eastern Canada as a whole. It is poor economy to feed $30 hay, $60 bran, $90 oilcake, or $70 grain for the production of pig feed at $2.40 per 100 pounds.

How can this loss be overcome? It can be overcome because there are patrons to every factory who never have a can of milk turned back. Condensers and milk powder plants demand a milk that is cooled to at least 65 degrees Fahrenheit and there are patrons who even in hot weather can maintain milk at a temperature of less than 60 degrees. Not all milk is turned back because ice was not used to cool the milk. In many cases dirty cans are used and the blame for this is mostly to be placed upon the farmer, although the factory sterilizing outfit is sometimes at fault. The first process in the holding of milk so that it will be clean and sweet when it reaches the factory is to have the cans clean and they should be examined as soon as they are brought from the factory to see if they are fit for fillling again. In too many cases cans are left at the roadside or lying anywhere about the house or barn for several hours, if not until milking time, before they are touched at all. This gives them plenty of time to gather up a nice accumulation of dust and if the weather is hot they easily get in a very poor condition for receiving the night’s milk. Moreover, there is always a little water remaining in the can when it gets back from the factory and this stays in the can all day and becomes stale and possibly filthy under some circumstances. Oftentimes there is a ring of cream left around the inside of the can. This is seldom removed by the steaming received at the factory and if the milk is being delivered at the cheese factory there are seldom if ever any sterilizing facilities are provided.

With reference to the ring of cream mentioned above it may be said that this is not necessary to the extent that it is often found. If the milk is cooled promptly after it has been drawn from the cow and the covers placed on the cans there will not be that thick, leathery layer of cream on top of the milk after the cans have been standing all night. It used to be the custom the for the milk intended for cheese making, to be aerated, because it was though that animal heat and odors could thus be got rid of by the simple expedient of leaving the covers off the cans. Experiments with milk intended for cheese making however, have shown that the best results were secured when the covers were placed on the cans as soon as the milking was done. Not only is it possible to make better cheese with milk so treated, but it also becomes impossible for the air surrounding the cans to evaporate the moisture from the cream on the top, thereby creating a tough, leathery layer of cream some of which will stick to the sides of the can, or form clots which it is impossible to break up. A good deal of this clotted cream is lost in the process of cheese-making, while for the manufacture of other dairy product such clots cannot readily be distributed again through the milk so as to make a uniform project. The cans should be covered as soon as the milk is strained into them.

A good deal of the beneficial effect of proper cooling will be lost if the milk is put into dirty cans. The injurious bacteria which cause souring or spoiling of the milk are assisted by heat and carelesness [sic]. Carelessness permits the use of dirty cans and thus allows the bacteria to gain entrance to the milk. Cooling the milk can only retard the development of these bacteria for the time being and it often happens that milk which may be cool when delivered to the factory will still contain sufficient bacteria to cause souring in a very few hours. As soon as the cans have been brought back from the factory they should be taken care of and placed upside down in the milk house with the covers off so that any moisture that is inside them may drain out. A slatted shelf or bench will prove the best arrangement for holding the empty cans.

In the actual cooling of the milk the result is more important than the method adopted. Certain good methods will prove more practical for some farms than others. Ice, while an absolute necessity under some circumstances, is not at all necessary on some farms. The difficulty is that too many men try to get along without ice when it would pay them abundantly to use it. In certain districts, notably the Brownsville district in Oxford county, flowing wells are to be found, which, take care of all problems connected with the cooling of milk. Running water can here be secured at a temperature that will keep the milk well below the 65 degrees demanded at the factory and the only problem left for the dairyman is the question of cooling the milk promptly. In other places very deep wells of cold water are found and there should not be any trouble from bad milk where water can be obtained at a temperature of 45 or 48 degrees F. In such cases ice is only necessary where the water is none too plentiful and the tank cannot be emptied and refilled once a day in hot weather. Even where the water is plentiful, however, ice may be necessary if the milk house is warm or if the warm air can play too freely over the tank.

There is no doubt, that the most successful patrons and the one who have the least trouble with bad milk under average conditions are those who have wisely selected a location for the milk house. This should, wherever possible, be on the north side of the barn with windows on the east and west sides to allow for a circulation of air. In many-cases, too, the milk house can be placed under the approach to the barn floor and if this approach happens to be on the north side of the barn no more suitable place can be found, provided it is kept clean. Cement walls, floors and ceilings make it possible to keep the place clean with the least trouble by merely using a hose over the whole interior at frequent intervals. A very frequent trouble with milk houses situated so close to the stable is that they become dirty and filled with things that have no business there, but are put there because the milk house is the handiest place to put them. Old planks, bags, tools and small pieces of machinery are frequently placed there and all tend to prevent the production of clean, sweet milk.

The most common tank is the cement one sunk below the floor sufficiently so that a can of milk can be lifted into it easily. We have seen very neat arrangements provided for hoisting the cans from one part of the tank to another, or for carrying the cans from the interior of the milk house to the wagon drawn up outside. Galvanized tanks are also frequently found and may be of all sizes and shapes. Generally speaking a tank should hold two cans side by side crosswise and may be made long enough to hold all the cans that are likely to be required. The intake of water may be either from the bottom of the tank, which is probably preferable, or from a tap or spout at or near the top edge. In any case the water should come from the well directly to the tank and not by way of a storage tank. We know of one instance where the water for cooling the milk formerly reached the milk house by way of a wooden storage tank at the south east corner of the barn and from there had to pass to the water bowls in the stable before it go to the milk house. This meant that milk could not be delivered at the factory, which was only a few hundred yards away, under 70 degrees temperature. A new owner quickly remedied this by cutting into the water pipe from the well, directly under the large storage tank, thus making it possible by the use of valves and a separate line of pipe, to carry the water directly from the well to the milk house. Milk was afterward delivered to the factory at between 60 and 65 degrees. In the majority of cases the water from the tank in the milk house is afterwards used for the watering of stock from a trough or basin in the barnyard in such cases the milk house tank rarely gets a special refilling because water is pumped only when the trough in the yard is low. This arrangement may be made perfectly satisfactory from the standpoint of milk if care is taken to do the pumping at night. In such cases, however, the water should always enter the tank in the milk house from below and overflow from the top to the trough outside.

Where ice is used not very much is necessary although it is better to use more than necessary rather than not enough. One pound of ice has a cooling value equal to about a gallon of water from the coldest well. The ice is put into the water with the night milk, the quantity used depending somewhat upon the kind of weather, the coldness of the water, the amount of milk, and the time that the milk is delivered to the factory in the morning. An important point is to get the milk cooled quickly after milking and for this purpose stirring is effective. For the first few minutes after the milk is put into the can an occasional stirring will help to lower the temperature by bringing all of the milk into contact with the side of the can next to the cold water. Once cooled and buried in cold water, milk is in a condition to keep for a much longer time than if it were allowed to cool slowly. In the morning the milk must be cooled quickly before it is taken to the factory and all the time there is for this is usually while the family is at breakfast. If the milk is to cool properly and as quickly as this, more stirring is necessary, but it does not need to be rapid. Frequency is much better than rapidity.

It is a pleasure to run across an occasional milk house the owner of which takes a pride in keeping it clean and in producing clean milk. Such a milk house is owned by D. E. Shively, Elgin County, and such an owner is Mr. Shively himself. It appeared to be a real pleasure to Mr. Shively to explain to a representative of “The Farmer’s Advocate” his successful method of cooling milk for the benefit of other readers of these columns. An illustration of this milk house appears herewith and the following remarks concerning it will, we hope, induce others of our readers to take better care of their milk. Mr. Shively is a patron of a condensery and when the plant began operations he made up his mind if he was to be paid according to the quality of his milk with all sour milk turned back, it would pay him to cool it properly. Consequently in 1913 he built the milk house shown herewith. The work was done by himself and the milk house with the equipment in it, which is very complete, cost about $800. The house itself is 14’ by 18’ with cement floor and half walls. The upper part of the walls and the roof are covered with galvanized roofing. Under this is a layer of prepared roofing, then boarding, then prepared roofing and then boarding on the inside. It is capable, according to Mr. Shively, of withstanding temperature of 25 degrees below zero before frost can get inside. It is situated close to the barn on the north side and is partly shaded in the forenoon and afternoon by fairly large trees with doors at both the north and south ends. Entering the door shown in the illustration, a patented cooler is found us found to the left of the doorway. This cooler has a large bowl in the top into which the milk is strained from the milk pail. From this bowl the milk flows into a shallow trough in the bottom of which small holes are punched so that the milk can be fed in small streams over the cooling coils below. The milk falls down the outside of these coils for a distance of about 16 inches to another trough at the bottom from which it flows into the milk can.The water is fed to the inside of the coils from a barrel situated in the corner of the milk house nearest to the photographer, by means of a line of hose which enters the cooler at the bottom. Another line of hose takes away the waste water from the top so that when the milk gets to the bottom of the coils it is acted upon by the coldest water. Just inside the door also and under the cooler is the cement tank where the cooled milk is placed overnight. This is built in the ordinary way but is fed from an open pipe emptying into the top of the tank. The outlet is through a drain pipe.

The water pipe runs along the end wall above the tank and partly along the side wall to a rotary pump which draws the water from the well outside and is operated by a gasoline engine which by the way is in remarkably fine condition and has been in operation since 1910. It is surrounded by a stout framework so that no one can come into contact with it when it is running. Between the rotary pump and the nearest corner of the milk house are three valves and upright water pipe. The upright feeds the barrel which acts as a storage tank for the cooler and the supply here is controlled by one of the valves. The valve nearest the corner controls the feed to the cement tank and the third valve controls the supply of water to a line of hose which can be used for washing the floor, or taken outside and used to wash buggies. The pump of course, is operated from a line shaft connected to the engine and toward the far end of the house on the same side as the pump stands the cream separator. The well is 25 feet deep and provides water at a temperature of 45 degrees. The pipe only goes into the well about 12 feet and the pump is about 8 or 10 feet from the well. Mr. Shively says that by the use of his cooler, the cold water from the well and the well insulated milk house he can hold milk until Monday morning at a temperature of 55 degrees without changing water in the tank. He figures that his $800 is very well spent because he can easily get full value for the interest on his money in milk that is not turned back from the factory.