Leon the Milkman’s Blog

A Dairy Farm Where Milk and Manure Pay the Bills

Posted on July 1st, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Dairy Farming, Cows, Dairy Science, International Dairy.

Hi, Cow Fans

The cows at the Audet family’s Blue Spruce Farm make nearly 9,000 gallons of milk a day—and about 35,000 gallons of manure.

It’s long been the milk that pays, but now the Audets have figured out how to make the manure pay as well. They’re using it—actually, the methane that comes from it—to generate electricity.

Read the rest here:

http://www.livescience.com/environment/ap_060630_manure.html

Kind regards,

Leon the Milkman

Here is an article with some financial figures as well: Economics of producing methane gas from cow manure to generate onfarm electricity (University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service. Bulletin) (University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service. Bulletin)

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Dairy farm finds energy source right under its nose

Posted on June 29th, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Dairy Farming, Dairy Science, International Dairy.

Hi, Dairy Farmers

Three years ago Lebanon’s biggest dairy farm, LibanLait, was confronting two seemingly unrelated problems: the rising cost of generating enough power to operate the dairy plant, and how to dispose of the approximately 160,000 pounds of cow manure that accumulated daily.

Read how they solved this dairy problem:

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=73546

Kind regards,

Leon the Milkman

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Nitrogen in milk

Posted on June 21st, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Milk, Dairy Science.

Hi, Dairy Scientists

The nitrogen in milk is divided into the protein in casein and whey protein. There is also a small percentage of NPN(non-protein nitrogen), which is in itself divided into Urea and non-Urea nitrogen.

Till next time,

Leon the Milkman

Check this link as well: Sources of variation in milk urea nitrogen in Ohio dairy herds : An article from: Journal of Dairy Science

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Freezing point and added water

Posted on May 12th, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Dairy Science.

Hi, Dairy Scientists

What is the relationship between the freezing point of milk and the amount of added water?

About 0.2% of added water for every 1000th of a degree Celsius depression under -0.512 degrees Celsius.

Thus -0.513 degrees Celsius will have 0.2% added water and -0.514 degrees Celsius will have 0.4% added water, etc.

Kind regards,

Leon the Milkman

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Hortvet vs. Celsius in Cryoscope

Posted on May 11th, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Dairy Science.

Hi, Dairy Scientists

How to convert degrees Celsius to Hortvet and vice versa?

Temp. reading in Celsius = 0.9656 x Temp. reading in Hortvet.

Temp. reading in Hortvet = 1.0356 x Temp. reading in Celsius.

Thus -0.512 Celsius = -0.530 Hortvet

Regards,

Leon the Milkman

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Method of determining remaining milk when taking off cream

Posted on May 11th, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Milk, Dairy Science.

Hi, Dairy Farmers/Processors

I get asked a lot how much milk remains after cream is taken off - hope this calculation helps. If I did it wrong - please let me know Theoretically:
1000 liters of milk(you start off with)40% fat in resulting cream(assume this is the fat % of your cream) Just substitute your cream’s tested fat % in here.

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Sampling from a milktank

Posted on May 5th, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Dairy Science.

Hi, Milk Scientists

When doing sampling from a milk tank to determine milk composotion, it is important that you sample from either the top or the bottom every time, even if you think that the milk was stirred enough - be consistent.

Also be aware that a round tank will probably only need 5 minutes of stirring, but a long/rectangular tank will need 10 minutes, because the milk do not build up momentum in those tanks.

Regards,

Leon the Milkman

Check this out:

Results of milk samples submitted for microbiological examination in Wisconsin from 1994 to 2001 : An article from: Journal of Dairy Science

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Milk pH

Posted on April 26th, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Dairy Science.

Hi, Milkfans

The pH of milk should ideally be between 6.60 and 6.75.

When milk pH goes into the 6.5’s it is considered to be turning sour and above 6.80 there is reason to suspect mastitis(udder infection) or alkaline soaps - usually because of insufficient rinsing of tanks after cleaning.

Regards,

Leon the Milkman

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How to use Pearson’s Square

Posted on April 25th, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Dairy Science.

Pearson Square

Hi, Milk Scientists

Need to know how much milk to mix with another to get a certain butterfat %?

Use the Pearson Square or the “milk butterfat square”.  Subtract diagonally and convert to the positive if not. Mix the parts as calculated and you will get the center value ( the one you wanted ).

In this example 2/3 of the final volume of the 4% milk must be added to 1/3 of the 1% milk to get 3% milk. So if you wanted 1000 L of 3% milk, then you would need 666 L of 4% milk and add that to 333 L of 1% milk.

This also works well for juices with different concentrations (Brix).

Kind regards,

Leon the Milkman

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Remaining milk - calculation

Posted on April 24th, 2006 by Leon the Milkman.
Categories: Dairy Science.

Hi, Dairy Scientists

You start off with 3.8% butterfat and you skim off to 2% - what is the volume of milk remaining?

Let us say you started off with 1000 liters of milk and your resulting cream has a butterfat of 40%

3.8% - 2% = 1.8% difference per part

1.8% x 1000 liters = 1800 parts of fat to be removed

1800 ÷ 40% = 45 liters of cream

1000 liters - 45 liters = 955 liters of milk remaining.

Don’t ask me why or how - this is the way to do it - agreed?

Semi-convinced,

Leon the Milkman

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