QUALITY OF CREAM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20851, 18 April 1931, Page 16

QUALITY OF CREAM.

SECURING HIGHEST GRADE.

CARE IN HANDLING

IMPORTANCE OF CLEANLINESS

BY F. 11.8,

Dairy farmers constantly complain that they cannot secure "finest" in their cr6am graclings. They are inclined, when lower grades continue, to blamo the grader, and to assert that by reason of too much use, his taste becomes so vitiated lie cannot accurately gauge the standard of the product. A grader at a dairy factory is human, and therefore liable to err. Admitting this, it still seems a reasonably fair statement that., day in. day out, the cream grader, with a keenlydeveloped taste, is correct in 99 per cent, of his decisions. If my cream grade should drop, the grader would bo the last man I should blamo.

Hero is one case, however, in which the gentleman on the factory platform proved his humanity. A few years back I was supplying not only cream to a factory, but also a few gallons of fresh milk daily for use as "starter." It was just as necessary that the milk, as in the case of Caesar's wife, should bo abovo reproach. Consequently, as with the cream, the grader sampled it each morning. A Grader's Error. It should bo understood that my cream was almost always "superfine," fis it was called then, and the milk invariably so. However, one morning thero was an accident. The final milk passed • through the milking machine to tho receiving vat and from this ran through a tap to a 16gallon milk can. By an oversight, someone had neglected to turn off the vat tap. When tho scalding soda-water was sent through tho milking machine to cleanse it, some of this escaped into the factory milk before it was noticed. I explained matters to tho grader before he tasted that morning. He gave mo grading tickets, saying he had tasted the soda very strongly. Not till I got homo did I notice that it was tho cream, not tho milk, that had been classed second grado. The milk, with its dash of soda-water, was ranked superfine! Next morning I asked the grader, and ho was positive that tho cream, which was quito free of it, was strongly impregnated with soda. Yet, in spite of this, I still assert that' in nearly all instances the taster at the factory is right in his grading. If there is a fault—and there must bo when cream does not consistently grade highest—that fault lies elsewhere. The simple rules for keeping cream sweet and fresh havo somewhere, someliow, been fractured. Cleanliness on the farm, it goes without saying, is essential—but there are other things. Milking gear and utensils must be perfectly clean ; so must the separator. In my own case I wash the separator first in cold, then in scalding water, after each using. Having only a few cows at present there is no dairy on/my'place and no cooler. After each separation the cream is hung under shady trees, facing south, with the lid of the can slightly tilted to let out heat and let in air. Two separations of cream are never mixed till each is quite cold and till it has to be placed in the one can by the roadside for tho cream carter. Care During Transport. So far all may be well. It is not in our case. Our carter is irregular in his arrival, and a can of cream waiting any time in the sun will invariably lose its freshness and suffer in grade. They do not want sour cream at the factory; th6y achieve ihat result by their own more scientific methods. For that reason our cream is always shaded till it picked up by the carter. Also, if the carrier has n6 shade on his lorry, damage en route is almost certain. In my judgment, cream transportation is the weakest link in our factory system. More damage is done while cream waits at the roadside or during transport, than from any other singlo cause. Thero is still another point. While I hold that factory grading of cream is not far wrong, factory washing of cream cans is not at all to be relied upon. Those who receive their cans back and let them go at that are only inviting trouble. Sometimes the cans come back quite clean; at other times inspection will show a considerable amount of stale greasiness. To make sure we make a point of rewashing at homo, and those who seek a consistently high grade would do well to act similarly. , Responsibility of the Farmer.

Taking tho precautions mentioned, though our carter is irregular in the time of his arrival, and ip any case only collects four days a week, we have secured "finest" right through the hot weather. Anyone else can do the same, for most farms have far better facilities than our small-holding. The farmer has to be clean first of all; to see that his cream of different ages is not mixed till the last minute, and then is perfectly cold; that tho sun does not sour the cream in the cans whilo waiting for tor during transport to the factory. If he does this and does not trust the factory washing, he will certainly get "finest" right along. If he says ho does all these things and his cream still grades low, then he is not doing the things intelligently. He, and not the grader, is at fault somewhere. In tho springtime, of course, especially on heavily top-dressed land, there is a certain rankness in the product. Also in the summer weeds the cows may eat, tho daisy, for instance, or certain summer fodders will produce tainted milk or cream. However outside food taints —and these can be-minimised—tho whole matter of cream grading is in tho farmer's own hands. Possibly, if his own work is intelligent, he may liavo to talk to his cream carrier like a Dutch uncle. As likely as not, the latter, allowing a blazing sun to do its best, or worst, is the chief culprit. But do not blnmo tho grader; ho does his work well. He is the man behind tho high quality of New Zealand butter.