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29 May - 28 July,
2000 |
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E-mail conference on Discussion Paper 1.2: |
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Issues raised by the
conference moderators: The following paper mainly addresses the
situation in medium to larger scale milk collection and transport
systems. It is being issued along with a poster paper on the
Lactoperoxidase System (LP-s) of Milk Preservation. Remember, the definitions of small scale
collection and processing for the purposes of the email conference are:
Participants may wish to
send in their own specific experiences on small scale milk collection,
preservation and transport. With this request in mind, the moderators
would like to ask the following questions: 1. The LP system is just one alternative
to refrigeration in small scale situations. Do you know of other
alternative systems or technologies that are efficient and cost
effective? Systems that use, for example, solar powered refrigeration,
or absorption refrigeration, or ....................... ? |
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2. What does it cost, in US
cents, a small scale dairy enterprise in your area/enterprise/country to
collect one litre of raw milk (from farm to processing unit)? How does
this compare with say, the ex-factory price of one litre of pre-packed
pasteurised milk.? How can these costs be kept to a minimum? *************************************************************
Discussion paper 1.2: Milk Collection, Preservation and Transport By: Jose Pedro Urraburu, Manager,
Pan American Dairy Information System (INFOLECHE), a service of the Pan
American Dairy Federation (FEPALE), Montevideo, Uraguay. 1. Machine milking On medium to large dairy farms, the usual
practice is to milk cows by a milking machine that sucks the milk out of the
teat by vacuum. The milking equipment consists of a vacuum pump, a
vacuum vessel which also serves as a milk collecting pail, teat cups
connected by hoses to the vacuum vessel, and a pulsator which alternately
applies vacuum and atmospheric pressure to the teat cups. The teat cup unit consists of a rigid
outer case containing an inner tube of rubber, called the teat cup
liner. The inside of the liner, in contact with the teat, is subjected
to a constant vacuum of about 0.5 bar (50% vacuum) during milking. The
pressure in the pulsation chamber (between the liner and teat cup) is
regularly alternated by the pulsator between 0.5 bar during the suction phase
and atmospheric pressure during the massage phase. The result is that
milk is sucked from the teat cistern during the suction phase. During
the massage phase the teat cup liner is pressed together to stop milk
suction, allowing a period of teat massage and for new milk to run down into
the teat cistern from the udder cistern. This is followed by another
suction phase, and so on. Relaxation of the teat during the massage
phase is necessary to avoid accumulation of blood and fluid in the teat,
which is painful to the cow and will cause her to stop letting down.
The pulsator alternates between the suction and massage phases 40 to 60 times
a minute. To eliminate the heavy and time-consuming
work of carrying filled pails to the milk room, a pipeline system may be
installed for direct transport of the milk to the milk room by vacuum. Such
systems are widely employed on medium sized and large farms and allow milk to
be conveyed in a closed system straight from the cow to a collecting tank in
the milk room. This is a great advantage from the bacteriological point
of view. It is however important that the pipeline system is designed to
prevent air leakage agitating the milk in a harmful way. The machine
milking plant is also provided with cleaning-in-place (CIP) facilities. 2. Chilling milk on the farm Milk leaves the udder at a temperature of
about 37C. Fresh milk from a healthy cow is practically free from
bacteria, but must be protected against infection as soon as it leaves the
udder. Micro-organisms capable of spoiling the milk are everywhere - on
the udder, on the milker's hands, on air-borne dust particles and water
droplets, on straw and chaff, on the cow's hair and in the soil. Milk
contaminated in this way must be filtered. Careful attention must be paid to hygiene
in order to produce milk of high bacteriological quality. However,
despite all precautions, it is impossible to completely exclude bacteria from
milk. Milk is in fact an excellent growth medium for bacteria - it
contains all the nutrients they need. So as soon as bacteria get into
milk they start to multiply. On the other hand, the milk leaving the
teats contains certain original bactericides which protect the milk against
the action of micro-organisms during the initial period. It also takes some
time for infecting micro-organisms to adapt to the new medium before they can
begin to grow. Unless the milk is chilled it will be
quickly spoiled by micro-organisms, which thrive and multiply most vigorously
at temperatures around 37oC. Milk should therefore be chilled quickly
to about 4oC immediately after it leaves the cow. At this temperature
the level of activity of micro-organisms is very low. But the bacteria
will start to multiply again if the temperature is allowed to rise during
storage. It is therefore important to keep the milk well chilled. Under certain circumstances, e.g. when
water and/or electricity is not available on the farm or when the quantity of
milk is too small to justify the investment needed on the farm, co-operative
milk collecting centres should be established. 3. Farm cooling equipment Spray or immersion coolers are used on
farms which deliver milk to the dairy in cans. In the spray cooler,
circulating chilled water is sprayed on the outsides of the cans to keep the
milk cool. The immersion cooler consists of a coil which is lowered
into the can. Chilled water is circulated through the coil to keep the
milk at the required temperature. Where milking machines are used, the milk is
collected in special farm tanks. These come in a variety of sizes with
built-in cooling equipment designed to guarantee chilling to a specified
temperature within a specified time. These tanks are also often
equipped for automatic cleaning to ensure a uniformly high standard of
hygiene. On very large farms, and in collecting
centres where large volumes of milk (more than 5 000 litres) must be chilled
quickly from 37oC to 4oC, the cooling equipment in the bulk tanks is
inadequate. In these cases the tank is mainly used to maintain the
required storage temperature; a major part of the cooling is carried out in
in-line heat exchangers in the delivery pipeline. 4. Frequency of delivery to the dairy In former times milk was delivered to the
dairy twice a day, morning and evening. In those days the dairy was
close to the farm. But as dairies became larger and fewer, their
catchment areas grew wider and the average distance from farm to dairy
increased. This meant longer intervals between collections. Collection
on alternate days is now common practice, and collection every three or even
four days is not entirely unknown. Milk should preferably be handled in a
closed system to minimise the risk of infection. It must be chilled quickly
to 4oC as soon as it is produced and then kept at that temperature until
processed. All equipment coming into contact with milk must be cleaned
and disinfected. Quality problems may arise if the
intervals between collections are too long. Certain types of
micro-organisms, known as psychrotrophic, can grow and reproduce below
+7oC. They occur mainly in soil and water, so it is important that
water used for cleaning is of high bacteriological quality. After an
acclimatisation period of 48-72 hours, growth goes into an intense
logarithmic phase. This results in breakdown of both fat and protein, giving
the milk off-flavours that may jeopardise the quality of products made from
it. This phenomenon must be allowed for in planning of collection
schedules. If long intervals cannot be avoided, it is advisable to chill the
milk to 2-3oC. 5. Milk transportation to the dairy The tanker driver who comes to the farm or
the co-operative milk collecting centre to pick up the milk, should take a
representative sample and preserve it properly it to maintain the same
properties from the time it was taken, until it is received at the dairy. The
same principle applies to the collected milk, which should be transported in
an insulated tank capable of maintaining a temperature between 4ºC and 9ºC. Drivers must follow regular routines to
transport milk from the farm to the dairy as follows:
During transportation,
thermographs measure temperature levels of the milk. In advanced dairy
countries, the insulated trucks are equipped with automatic sampling devices.
Prices for these devices range from US$ 500 to US$ 7,000. 6. Control software Some available software products allow the
dairy to keep record of the complete milk transportation chain: milk samples,
driver and tanker tracking, shipment volumes, etc. 7. Case study: a Brazilian dairy
co-operative Contrary to the notion that the small
dairy farmer is destined to failure, the Co-operative Agropecuaria de Boa
Esperança Ltda. (CAPEBE), located in Minas Gerais, Brazil has successfully
developed a milk collection programme among its farmers, 80% of them
producing an average of 100 litres/day. The key of the programme is the common
cooling tank. After more than a year of the new
collection programme implementation, the region of Esperança where CAPABE
operates has nine common cooling tanks working, and four more in the process
of installation. Between April 1999 and February 2000 CAPEBE
bulk milk collection, including 55 private cooling tanks, has grown from 28%
to 70% of its 55,000 litres/day production. This has allowed CAPEBE to
reduce milk rejected at reception from 140,000 litres in 1997 to 16,400
litres in 1999. One of the major impacts of the programme
on dairy farmers was the dramatic reduction of transport costs, which in some
regions fell up to 80%. For example, in some places, the transport cost per
litre went down from US$ 0.022 to US$ 0.007 per litre. Before the use of common cooling tanks,
the tanker would travel a distance of 90 kms, loading between 1,000 and 1,200
litres per day. Today, after two common tanks and five private tanks
have been installed, the tanker circuit is down to 58 kms., loading 6,500
litres of milk every two days. In addition to the reduced
transportation costs, product quality has improved because the time between
milking and arrival at the dairy has been significantly reduced. At a price of US$ 5,155, each cooling tank
has a capacity to store 2.500 litres of milk. The farmers use the
financing offered by CAPEBE that allows payments in 15 months without
interests, five months more than the market financing. The tank invoice
goes to one of the associated farmers, but all of the farmers authorise CAPEBE
to discount the payments from their milk cheques. The most recent purchase of a common
cooling tank was made in March of this year, by 16 dairy farmers who together
produce 1.200 litres/day. Appendix 1: Cooling tanks prices Here are some reference prices for
different capacity cooling tanks, available in the Brazilian market (May
2000):
Milking machines and milk cans prices The following are reference prices of milk
cans available in the Brazilian market, and milking machines available in
Uruguay. Milk cans and pails – May 2000
Milking machines – December 1999
Appendix 2: Farm equipment sources The following are a few examples of farm
and testing equipment manufacturers: http://www.westfalia.com/english/start.htm
– Farm Equipment (Germany) Complete lists of companies in Latin
America can be purchased at the Pan American Dairy Information System -
INFOLECHE: http://www.fepale.org Sources: |
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