Dairy

A dairy is a facility for the extraction and processing of animal milk—mostly from goats or cows, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses, or camels —for human consumption.

As an adjective, the word dairy describes milk-based products and processes, for example dairy cattle, dairy goat. A dairy farm produces milk and a dairy factory processes it into a variety of dairy products.

In New Zealand English a dairy means a corner shop, milk bar or Superette and dairy factory is the term for what is elsewhere a dairy.

In the UK a dairy is a processing facility that turns milk into a range of products.

In the U.S. a dairy can be the storage and processing facility for milk, the facility that processes and distributes the milk or the store that sells milk, butter, cheese and suchlike.

History

Milk-producing animals have been domesticated for thousands of years. Initially they were part of the subsistence farming that nomads engaged in. As the community moved about the country so did their animals accompany them. Protecting and feeding the animals were a big part of the symbiotic relationship between the animal and the herder.

In the more recent past, people in agricultural societies owned dairy animals that they milked for domestic or local (village) consumption, a typical example of a cottage industry. The animals might serve multiple purposes (for example, as a draught animal for pulling a plough as a youngster and at the end of its useful life as meat). In this case the animals were normally milked by hand and the herd size was quite small so that all of the animals could be milked in less than an hour—about 10 per milker.

With industrialisation and urbanisation the supply of milk became a commercial industry with specialised breeds of cow being developed for dairy, as distinct from beef or draught animals. Initially more people were employed as milkers but it soon turned to mechanisation with machines designed to do the milking.

Historically, the milking and the processing took place close together in space and time: on a dairy farm.

People milked the animals by hand; on farms where only small numbers are kept hand-milking may still be practiced. Hand-milking is accomplished by grasping the teats (often pronounced tit or tits) in the hand and expressing milk either by squeezing the fingers progressively, from the udder end to the tip, or by squeezing the teat between thumb and index finger then moving the hand downward from udder towards the end of the teat. The action of the hand or fingers is designed to close off the milk duct at the udder (upper) end and, by the movement of the fingers, close the duct progressively to the tip to express the trapped milk. Each half or quarter of the udder is emptied one milk-duct capacity at a time.

The stripping action is repeated, using both hands for speed. Both methods result in the milk that was trapped in the milk duct being squirted out the end into a bucket that is supported between the knees (or rests on the ground) of the milker, who usually sits on a low stool.

Traditionally the cow, or cows, would stand in the field or paddock while being milked. Young stock, heifers, would have to be trained to remain still to be milked. In many countries the cows were tethered to a post and milked. The problem with this method is that it relies on quiet, tractable beasts, because the hind end of the cow is not restrained. In cold countries where cows are kept in barns, at least for the winter if not throughout the year, they are still tethered only by the neck or head, particularly where they are kept in small numbers.

In 1937 it was found that bovine somatotropin (bST) (bovine growth hormone) would increase the yield of milk. In the 1950s it was discovered that certain types of human dwarfism were due to an inadequate pituitary production of somatotropin. However, clinical trials involving the injection of these patients with bST demonstrated that bST was not biologically active in humans. Monsanto developed a synthetic version of this hormone. In February 1994 bST was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in the U.S. It has become common, in the U.S. but not elsewhere, to inject it into dairy cows in order to increase their production by up to 10%. However, there are claims that this practice can have negative consequences for the animals themselves; these claims have not been verified.

Dairy processing

When it became necessary to milk larger numbers of cows, the cows would be brought to a shed or barn that was set up with bails (stalls) where the cows could be confined while they were milked. One person could milk more cows this way, as many as 20 for a skilled worker. But having cows standing about in the yard and shed waiting to be milked is not good for the cow, as she needs as much time in the paddock grazing as is possible. It is usual to restrict the twice-daily milking to a maximum of an hour and a half each time. It makes no difference whether one milks 10 or 1000 cows, the milking time should not exceed a total of about three hours each day for any cow.

As herd sizes increased there was more need to have efficient milking machines, sheds, milk-storage facilities (vats), bulk-milk transport and shed cleaning capabilities and the means of getting cows from paddock to shed and back. (This can be seen as a chicken and egg argument: as farmers were persuaded to invest in more expensive facilities, they needed to maximise their herd size to justify their spending.)

Farmers found that cows would abandon their grazing area and walk towards the milking area when the time came for milking. This is not surprising as, in the flush of the milking season, cows presumably get very uncomfortable with udders engorged with milk, and the place of relief for them is the milking shed.

As herd numbers increased so did the problems of animal health. In New Zealand two approaches to this problem have been used. The first was improved veterinary medicines (and the government regulation of the medicines) that the farmer could use. The other was the creation of veterinary clubs where groups of farmers would employ a veterinarian (vet) full-time and share those services throughout the year. It was in the vet's interest to keep the animals healthy and reduce the number of calls from farmers, rather than to ensure that the farmer needed to call for service and pay regularly.

Most dairy farmers milk their cows with absolute regularity at a minimum of twice a day, with some high-producing herds milking up to four times a day to lessen the weight of large volumes of milk in the udder of the cow. This daily milking routine goes on for about 300 to 320 days per year that the cow stays in milk. Some small herds are milked once a day for about the last 20 days of the production cycle but this is not usual for large herds. If a cow is left unmilked just once she is likely to reduce milk-production almost immediately and the rest of the season may see her dried off (giving no milk) and still consuming feed for no production. However, once-a-day milking is now being practised more widely in New Zealand for profit and lifestyle reasons. This is effective because the fall in milk yield is at least partially offset by labour and cost savings from milking once per day. This compares to some intensive farm systems in the United States that milk three or more times per day due to higher milk yields per cow and lower marginal labor costs.

Farmers who are contracted to supply liquid milk for human consumption (as opposed to milk for processing into butter, cheese, and so on—see milk) often have to manage their herd so that the contracted number of cows are in milk the year round, or the required minimum milk output is maintained. This is done by mating cows outside their natural mating time so that the period when each cow in the herd is giving maximum production is in rotation throughout the year.

Northern hemisphere farmers who keep cows in barns almost all the year usually manage their herds to give continuous production of milk so that they get paid all year round. In the southern hemisphere the cooperative dairying systems allow for two months on no productivity because their systems are designed to take advantage of maximum grass and milk production in the spring and because the milk processing plants pay bonuses in the dry (winter) season to carry the farmers through the mid-winter break from milking. It also means that cows have a rest from milk production when they are most heavily pregnant. Some year-round milk farms are penalised financially for over-production at any time in the year by being unable to sell their overproduction at current prices.

Artificial insemination (AI) is common in all high-production herds.

Industrial dairying

Main article: dairy products

Cream and butter

Today, milk is separated by large machines in bulk into cream and skim milk. The cream is processed to produce various consumer products, depending on its thickness, its suitability for culinary uses and consumer demand, which differs from place to place and country to country.

Some cream is dried and powdered, some is condensed (by evaporation) mixed with varying amounts of sugar and canned. Most cream from New Zealand and Australian factories is made into butter. This is done by churning the cream until the fat globules coagulate and form a monolithic mass. This butter mass is washed and, sometimes, salted to improve keeping qualities. The residual buttermilk goes on to further processing. The butter is packaged (25 to 50 kg boxes) and chilled for storage and sale. At a later stage these packages are broken down into home-consumption sized packs. Butter sells for about US$3200 a tonne on the international market in 2007 (an unusual high).^[1]

Skim milk

The product left after the cream is removed is called skim, or skimmed, milk. Reacting skim milk with rennet or with an acid makes casein curds from the milk solids in skim milk, with whey as a residual. To make a consumable liquid a portion of cream is returned to the skim milk to make low fat milk (semi-skimmed) for human consumption. By varying the amount of cream returned, producers can make a variety of low-fat milks to suit their local market. Other products, such as calcium, vitamin D, and flavouring, are also added to appeal to consumers.

Casein

Casein is the predominant phosphoprotein found in fresh milk. It has a very wide range of uses from being a filler for human foods, such as in ice cream, to the manufacture of products such as fabric, adhesives, and plastics.

Cheese

Cheese is another product made from milk. Whole milk is reacted to form curds that can be compressed, processed and stored to form cheese. In countries where milk is legally allowed to be processed without pasteurisation a wide range of cheeses can be made using the bacteria naturally in the milk. In most other countries, the range of cheeses is smaller and the use of artificial cheese curing is greater. Whey is also the byproduct of this process.

Cheese has historically been an important way of "storing" milk over the year, and carrying over its nutritional value between prosperous years and fallow ones. It is a food product that, with bread and beer, dates back to prehistory in Middle Eastern and European cultures, and like them is subject to innumerable variety and local specificity. Although nowhere near as big as the market for cow's milk cheese, a considerable amount of cheese is made commercially from other milks, especially goat and sheep (see Roquefort cheese for a notable example).

Whey

In earlier times whey was considered to be a waste product and it was, mostly, fed to pigs as a convenient means of disposal. Beginning about 1950, and mostly since about 1980, lactose and many other products, mainly food additives, are made from both casein and cheese whey.

Yogurt

Yoghurt (or yogurt) making is a process similar to cheese making, only the process is arrested before the curd becomes very hard.

Milk powders

Milk is also processed by various drying processes into powders. Whole milk and skim-milk powders for human and animal consumption and buttermilk (the residue from butter-making) powder is used for animal food. The main difference between production of powders for human or for animal consumption is in the protection of the process and the product from contamination. Some people drink milk reconstituted from powdered milk, because milk is about 88% water and it is much cheaper to transport the dried product. Dried skim milk powder is worth about US$5300 a tonne (mid-2007 prices) on the international market.^[2]

Other milk products

Kumis is produced commercially in Central Asia. Although it is traditionally made from mare's milk, modern industrial variants may use cow's milk instead.

Transport of milk

Historically, the milking and the processing took place in the same place: on a dairy farm. Later, cream was separated from the milk by machine, on the farm, and the cream was transported to a factory for buttermaking. The skim milk was fed to pigs. This allowed for the high cost of transport (taking the smallest volume high-value product), primitive trucks and the poor quality of roads. Only farms close to factories could afford to take whole milk, which was essential for cheesemaking in industrial quantities, to them. The development of refrigeration and better road transport, in the late 1950s, has meant that most farmers milk their cows and only temporarily store the milk in large refrigerated bulk tanks, whence it is later transported by truck to central processing facilities.

Milking machines

Milking machines are used to extract milk from cows when the herd is larger than about 4 cows. The milking unit is the portion of a milking machine for removing milk from an udder. It is made up of a claw, four teatcups, long milk tube, long pulsator tube, and (in the case of portable milkers) a pulsator. The claw is a manifold that connects the short pulse tubes and short milk tubes from the teatcups to the long pulse tube and long milk tube. Claws are commonly made of stainless steel or plastic. Teatcups are composed of a rigid outer shell (stainless steel or plastic) that holds a soft inner liner or inflation. Transparent sections in the shell may allow viewing of liner collapse and milk flow. The annular space between the shell and liner is called the pulsation chamber.

Milking machines work in a way that is different from hand milking or calf suckling. Continuous vacuum is applied inside the soft liner to withdraw milk from the teat by creating a pressure difference across the teat canal (or opening at the end of the teat). Vacuum also helps keep the machine attached to the cow. The vacuum applied to the teat causes congestion of teat tissues (accumulation of blood and other fluids). Atmospheric air is admitted into the pulsation chamber about once per second (the pulsation rate) to allow the liner to collapse around the end of teat and relieve congestion in the teat tissue. The ratio of the time that the liner is open (milking) and closed (massaging or resting) is called the pulsation ratio.

The four streams of milk from the teatcups (titcups) are usually combined in the claw and transported to the milkline, or the collection bucket (usually sized to the output of one cow) in a single milk hose. Milk is then transported (manually in buckets) or with a combination of airflow and mechanical pump to a central storage vat or bulk tank. Milk is refrigerated on the farm in most countries either by passing through a heat-exchanger or in the bulk tank, or both.

In the photo above is a bucket milking system with the stainless steel bucket visible on the far side of the cow. The two rigid stainless steel teatcup shells applied to the front two quarters of the udder are visible. The top of the flexible liner is visible at the top of the shells as are the short milk tubes and short pulsation tubes extending from the bottom of the shells to the claw. The bottom of the claw is transparent to allow observation of milk flow. When milking is completed the vacuum to the milking unit is shut off and the teatcups are removed.

Milking machines keep the milk enclosed and safe from external contamination. The interior 'milk contact' surfaces of the machine are kept clean by a manual or automated washing procedures implemented after milking is completed. Milk contact surfaces must comply with regulations requiring food-grade materials (typically stainless steel and special plastics and rubber compounds) and are easily cleaned.

Most milking machines are powered by electricity but, in case of electrical failure, there can be an alternative means of motive power, often an internal combustion engine, for the vacuum and milk pumps. Milk cows cannot tolerate delays in scheduled milking without serious milk production reductions.

Milking shed layouts

Bail-style sheds— This type of milking facility was the first development, after open-paddock milking, for many farmers. The building was a long, narrow, lean-to shed that was open along one long side. The cows were held in a yard at the open side and when they were about to be milked they were positioned in one of the bails (stalls). Usually the cows were restrained in the bail with a breech chain and a rope to restrain the outer back leg. The cow could not move about excessively and the milker could expect not to be kicked or trampled while sitting on a (three-legged) stool and milking into a bucket. When each cow was finished she backed out into the yard again.

As herd sizes increased a door was set into the front of each bail so that when the milking was done for any cow the milker could, after undoing the leg-rope and with a remote link, open the door and allow her to exit to the pasture. The door was closed, the next cow walked into the bail and was secured. When milking machines were introduced bails were set in pairs so that a cow was being milked in one paired bail while the other could be prepared for milking. When one was finished the machine's cups are swapped to the other cow. This is the same as for Swingover Milking Parlours as described below except that the cups are loaded on the udder from the side. As herd numbers increased it was easier to double-up the cup-sets and milk both cows simultaneously than to increase the number of bails. About 50 cows an hour can be milked in a shed with 8 bales by one person.

Herringbone Milking Parlours— In herringbone milking sheds, or parlours, cows enter, in single file, and line up almost perpendicular to the central aisle of the milking parlour on both sides of a central pit in which the milker works (you can visualise a fishbone with the ribs representing the cows and the spine being the milker's working area; the cows face outward). After washing the udder and teats the cups of the milking machine are applied to the cows, from the rear of their hind legs, on both sides of the working area. Large herringbone sheds can milk up to 600 cows efficiently with two people.

Swingover Milking Parlours— Swingover parlours are the same as herringbone parlours except they have only one set of milking cups to be shared between the two rows of cows, as one side is being milked the cows on the other side are moved out and replaced with unmilked ones. The advantage of this system is that it is less costly to equip, however it operates at slightly better than half-speed and one would not normally try to milk more than about 100 cows with one person.

Rotary Milking sheds— Rotary milking sheds consist of a turntable with about 12 to 100 individual stalls for cows around the outer edge. A "good" rotary will be operated with 24–32 (~48–50+) stalls by one (two) milkers. The turntable is turned by an electric-motor drive at a rate that one turn is the time for a cow to be milked completely. As an empty stall passes the entrance a cow steps on, facing the centre, and rotates with the turntable. The next cow moves into the next vacant stall and so on. The operator, or milker, cleans the teats, attaches the cups and does any other feeding or whatever husbanding operations that are necessary. Cows are milked as the platform rotates. The milker, or an automatic device, removes the milking machine cups and the cow backs out and leaves at an exit just before the entrance. The rotary system is capable of milking very large herds—over a thousand cows.

Automatic Milking sheds— Automatic milking or 'robotic milking' sheds can be seen in many European countries. Current automatic milking sheds use the voluntary milking (VM) method. These allow the cows to voluntarily present themselves for milking at any time of the day or night, although repeat visits may be limited by the farmer through computer software. A robot arm is used to clean teats and apply milking equipment, while automated gates direct cow traffic, eliminating the need for the farmer to be present during the process. The entire process is computer controlled. There is a description of an automatic system here—^[3]

Supplementary accessories in sheds— Farmers soon realised that a milking shed was a good place to feed cows supplementary foods that overcame local dietary deficiencies or added to the cows' wellbeing and production. Each bail might have a box into which such feed is delivered as the cow arrives so that she is eating while being milked. A computer can read the eartag of each beast to ration the correct individual supplement.

The holding yard at the entrance of the shed is important as a means of keeping cows moving into the shed. Most yards have a powered gate that ensures that the cows are kept close to the shed.

Water is a vital commodity on a dairy farm: cows drink about 20 gallons (80 litres) a day, sheds need water to cool and clean them. Pumps and reservoirs are common at milking facilities.

Temporary milk storage

Milk coming from the cow is transported to a nearby storage vessel by the airflow leaking around the cups on the cow or by a special "air inlet" (5-10 l/min free air) in the claw. From there it is pumped by a mechanical pump and cooled by a heat exchanger. The milk is then stored in a large vat, or bulk tank, which is usually refrigerated until collection for processing.

Processing facilities

Topics:

Waste disposal

In countries where cows are grazed outside year-round there is little waste disposal to deal with. The most concentrated waste is at the milking shed where the animal waste is liquefied (during the water-washing process) and allowed to flow by gravity, or pumped, into composting ponds with anaerobic bacteria to consume the solids. The processed water and nutrients are then pumped back onto the pasture as irrigation and fertilizer.

Surplus animals are slaughtered for processed meat and other rendered products.

In the associated milk processing factories most of the waste is washing water that is treated, usually by composting, and returned to waterways. This is much different from half a century ago when the main products were butter, cheese and casein, and the rest of the milk had to be disposed of as waste (sometimes as animal feed).

In areas where cows are housed all year round the waste problem is difficult because of the amount of feed that is bought in and the amount of bedding material that also has to be removed and composted. The size of the problem can be understood by standing downwind of the barns where such dairying goes on.

In many cases modern farms have very large quantities of milk to be transported to a factory for processing. If anything goes wrong with the milking, transport or processing facilities it can be a major disaster trying to dispose of enormous quantities of milk. If a road tanker overturns on a road the rescue crew is looking at accommodating the spill of 10 to 20 thousand gallons of milk (45 to 90 thousand litres) without allowing any into the waterways. A derailed rail tanker-train may involve 10 times that amount. Without refrigeration, milk is a fragile commodity and it is very damaging to the environment in its raw state. A widespread electrical power blackout is another disaster for the dairy industry because both milking and processing facilities are affected.

In dairy-intensive areas the simplest way of disposing of large quantities of milk has been to dig a large hole in the ground and allow the clay to filter the milk solids as it soaks away. This is not very satisfactory.

Diseases associated with the dairy industry

Leptospirosis is one of the most common debilitating diseases of milkers, made somewhat worse since the introduction of herringbone sheds because of unavoidable direct contact with bovine urine
Cowpox is one of the helpful diseases; it is barely harmful to humans and tends to inoculate them against other poxes such as chickenpox
Tuberculosis (TB) is able to be transmitted from cattle, mainly via milk products that are unpasteurised and many dairy-producing families consume milk that way. In the important dairy exporting countries TB has been eradicated from herds by testing for the disease and culling suspected animals
Brucellosis is a bacterial disease transmitted to humans by dairy products and direct animal contact. In the important dairy exporting countries Brucellosis has been eradicated from herds by testing for the disease and culling suspected animals
Listeria is a bacterial disease associated with unpasteurised milk and can affect some cheeses made in traditional ways. Careful observance of the traditional cheesemaking methods achieves reasonable protection for the consumer
Johne's Disease (pronounced "yo-knees") is a contagious, chronic and usually fatal infection in ruminants caused by a bacterium named Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (M. paratuberculosis). The bacteria is present in retail milk and is believed by some researchers to be the primary cause of Crohn's disease in humans. This disease is not known to infect animals in Australia and New Zealand.

Notes

^ [1] U.S. domestic price
^ [2] European prices
^ [3] Robotic dairy at Winnindoo, Vic, Australia.

References

Jay, J.M. (1992). Modern Food Microbiology. Fourth Edition. New York: Chapman & Hall. pp. 237-9.
Potter, N.N. & J. H. Hotchkiss. (1995). Food Science. Fifth Edition. New York: Chapman & Hall. pp. 279-315.
Swasigood, H.E. (1985). "Characteristics of Edible Fluids of Animal Orgin: Milk." In Food Chemistry. Second Edition. Revised and Expanded. O.R. Fennema, Ed. New York: Marcell Dekker, Inc. pp. 791-827.

External links

[1] [1] U.S. domestic price

[2] [2] European prices

[3] [3] Robotic dairy at Winnindoo, Vic, Australia.

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