Dairy Science
Mark van der Walt visits Elsenburg
Hi, Milk Fans
Yes, it’s true! Mark of Rhine Ruhr South Africa visited us today and calibrated the CombiFoss for Urea.  No we didn’t piddle in a can!
Thanks, Mark
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Pasteurizing cheese milk at home
Hi, Cheese fans
If you want to pasteurize raw milk at home for cheese making it is best to use two form fitting pots like on the photo. Fill the gap between the pots with water and make sure that the inside pot is hanging so that there is also some water under the bottom.
This is much like the set-up you would use to melt chocolate.  Heat the milk to 65°C and keep it there for 5 minutes – then cool it down with cold or ice water in the kitchen sink.
For cheese making the milk should be cooled to 32°C and for drinking it should be cooled to at leat 8°C and then refrigerated to cool it down further.
This method can of course be used for pasteurizing goat milk at home or any other milk for that matter.
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Hands-on dairy science for students
Hi, Milk fansÂ
Brutus stood patiently as yet another student pulled on a glove up to her shoulder. The steer has gotten used to people sticking their hands through the fistula, or tube, in his side, reaching into his stomach and squeezing a handful of his lunch.
The steer is doing his part to help attract students into animal and dairy sciences at the University of Georgia.
Read the rest here:
http://www.thebladeplus.com/news/2006/0717/News/020.html
Kind Regards,
Leon the Milkman
Should Dairy Free Consumers be Concerned?
Hi, Milk Fans
According to a recently released study out of UCLA, women may lower their risk for type-2 diabetes by increasing their intake of low fat dairy products. Should those who shun or limit dairy consumption be concerned?
Read the rest here:
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=16323
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Calibrating Cryoscope
Hi, Dairy Scientists
Had a question on how to calibrate a cryoscope. For you who do not know this is a apparatus that freezes milk to determine the freezing point. This tells us if water was added. No water may be added to milk legally.
Usually standards that freeze at -0.408°C and -0.600°C is used, because milk freezes between -0.512°C and -0.550°C.  The calibration standards thus lie on each side of milk’s freezing points.  Distilled water can also be used as higher standard in place of the -0.408°C standard. This tip will save your lab money!
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
A Dairy Farm Where Milk and Manure Pay the Bills
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)
Dairy farm finds energy source right under its nose
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
Nitrogen in milk
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
Freezing point and added water
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
Hortvet vs. Celsius in Cryoscope
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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