THE GRADING OF CREAM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18761, 15 July 1924, Page 12

THE GRADING OF CREAM.

SAFEGUARDS TO PURITY.

NECESSITY FOR CLEANLINESS.

; N ; LECTURE TO FARMERS.

&n interesting address on the grading, of cream was given by Mr. G. M. Valentine, Government dairy instructor, at the Farm School held at Dargaville last week. He said the Northern Wairoa Dairy Company, which had one of the best equipped factories in Now Zealand, held the record in the North for the lowest amount of second grade butter. For six years their average had only been .22 per cent. Contamination causing Becond grade came the farm, the milk from a healthy cow on good food, milked under clean conditions, being sterile, and if the cream arrived at the factory bad, it must have been exposed to contamination —generally through dirt. When the farmer gets a second grado ticket, he should find out the csuse and apply a remedy, and if he was unable ■to do this the instructor would help him. Quality of cream usually went down when maclunes were installed, usually through not keeping up a proper degree of cleanliness. One dirty tube was enough even if the rest of the machine was a model cf cleanliness. Washing should be done •with cold water first, then with hot water and soda, and finally with scalding water. Hard brushes were bad for rubber tubes but it did them good to be periodically boiled in a solution of caustic soda, which tended to preserve them. The same applied to inflations.' Kopy cream was caused by a bad water supply. Once in the machine it must be got rid of before improvement could bo effected, even if the conditions among the herd were altered, so that the farmer must sterilise thoroughly. ' Low condition of the cow tended to bad cream and butter as also did mammitis and other diseases. Feed flavours caused a lot of argument and much could be done for this in the way of caieful handling, cooling, stirring etc. Running the separator played a big part in the. quality of cream. Sometimes the speed was too low, when thjire would be thinner cream of a poorer grade. Sometimes the separator was sot too low under the tank, and in this case more milk went through than the machine could adequately deal with, and / the cream would be thin and lumpy. Flavours developed in butter-milk and so cream of this kind was usually graded second class. Defective drainage was a cause of deterioration in cream, and a wooden stirrer •was one of the worst things ever invented, always contaminating the cream. Meta] strainers should be used, as cloth strainers were useless, unless they were boiled after each milking. The speaker showed a graph illustrating; the rise and fall of quality since 3914. The average in the North was then 90.77' while in 1922-23 ifc had risen to 92.65. This was a large achievement. In 1914 onlv one factory got over 92 points. In 1923 there were 13, the highest of which went to 9ft£ points. All this was due to grading and the trouble gone to by the factories aad department.