VARIOUS METHODS OF UTILISING THE SKIM-MILK, BUTTERMILK, AND WHEY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 16

VARIOUS METHODS OF UTILISING THE SKIM-MILK, BUTTERMILK, AND WHEY.

(Essay by Charles A. Ptnblow, M.D. of Picton, Ont., awarded first prize in New York State Fair Competition.) In the manufacture of butter, skimmed milk and butter-milk are the by-products, and in cheese-making: whey is the only remaining substanoe left. Progressive dairy. fn! n m a f e . l€ f rnin S *<> appreciate these use. | ul materials, and frequently one hears that wouM hIV f ° r * ne byproducts there would be little money in dairying The Kroduof the *"* ?°" M of SEBg these governld KTI m J 0 ?"* instances be fenfenoe t y & °° n *tioi», such as convafueTnft£ mar > ot and b * tho DrodW, , P roducte in «o which these byproducts can be converted fa t k S, miJ \ is . wh °lo milk minus its S SS:!*' fff 68 * 68 ' » s e 'undoubtedly is in the feeding of young animals, particularly of a^- PlffS */ nd -,{° r hens - vie in 3 c of summed milk for this purpose, deFt % ralue of the anim « ,s ?o Which V,' 8 5* ?M teen cen s» Per 1001 bis probably the minimum value and 25 cente tho ST' **»f always being increased when the milk is properly cared for. During recent years an outlet has been made for large quantities of skimmed milk in the manufacture of casein, but as vet it he e can o V? ft - en u Vie J d j* farm6r UmSto L^" 1 by deeding the skimmed milk hen, lei\I e i\ h ° S f' chl ' ck ens, and laying hens. About 15 cents per 1001 bof skimmed milk is as high as most buyers pay for casern above the cost of manufacture. The time will soon come, however, when more .^ }? realised from this source, ,\f« "tides made from casein are increasing rapidly. n Jn m T nSe < J" aE ¥ tie s of skimmed milk are £3i y , mado , ln t°. cheese. A hundred Pounds of good skimmed milk will yield about eight pounds of Cheddar cheese, which at times can be sold for as much as llb '- glvin " a of SC cents pel 1001 b for skimmed milk. As a general thing, however such cheese sell for about five cents per lib, depending, as with most things, on the quality. Creamery-men located within short distances of towns and cities can usually dispose of considerable skimmed milk in the form of cottage cheese and baker's cheese. One hundred pounds of good skimmed milk yields about Hlb of cottage cheese, which retails at from 10 to ZO cents per pound when put up in neat packages weighing 41b each. The small paper pail seems to be a favourite form for carrying cottage cheese. It seems regrettable that a greater use of skimmed milk is not made for food purposes, especially amongst tho poorer classes in cities. It is an excellent food for children over one year old and for adults, and if it were sold for one-half the price of whole milk, many poor families would be greatly benefited, and more mdney would be realised by farmers and creamery-men. The day is not far distant, when the scarcity of whole milk will make the sale of skimmed milk for food a necessity. Towns and cities are offering ever-increasing outlets for sour milk drinks, and skimmed milk can be very profitablv utilised for this purpose. In districts where the sale of spirituous- liquors is prohibited, butter-milk makes a useful non-intoxicant substitute, and the fact that the emdicinal effects of butter-milk are so useful in clearing out the bad effects of "boo/.e" makes it an ideal side line for bars and saloons. The greatest outlet for buttermilk is undoubtedly for feeding purposes to hogs and hens. For this purpose it is worth 10 to 15 cents ner 1001 b. Anvone who is fond of butter-milk hates to think of it goinor to the hogs at this price when it cannot be obtained in the city, frequently, at anv price. A hundred pounds of -buttermilk makes over POO glasses, which at five merits per glass trives lfldol per 1001 b. A big profit, indeed, for the retailer. A very nice grade of soft cheese can be made from butter-milk. It closely resembles cottage cheese, but has some additional desirable characteristics and is a profitable side-line, as about 151 b, worth about 20 cents a nound retail, can be obtained from "1001 bof good butter-milk. The methods of manufacturing these cheeses, and sour milk drinks can be ascertained through late dairy hooks and bulletins.

Whey is probably the least appreciated of the by-products, and yet it represents 3/ tremendous business in itself. The first tihinfr for factory-men to consider in re<ra.rd to the Itilisat.ion of whey is the pdvisability of separating its fat content. , This can bo determined by testing the whey with a Babcock test and multiplying the fat test bv nine-tenths of the weight of the milk. This trives the pounds of fat available in the whey, and one can easily figure whether this will be larere enough to give a reasonable profit on the money necessary to be invested in whey-skimming and butter-mak-ing machinery. Most o fthe larger factories are finding that the_ fat from the whey yields greater profit in the form of butter than when fed direct to hop's. One thing is certain, that a. pound of milk fat will not nut a nound of fat on a hojr. Therefore, in feeding hogs unskimmed whey, fat worth 25 or more cents a pound is fed to produce less than five rents' worth of hop meat. In the average factory, the total cost of a pound of whey-butter is about eight cents, and in rr.anv places a larger profit can be lefilised by manufacturing wheycream into ice cream, or for regular cream purposes after it has been pasteurised. The great feeding value of whey lies in its sugar content, which averages about five pounds in every 1001 b of sweet whey. One pound of sugar in this form will put just, as much or more meat on a hog as a pound of fat "ill. but the sugar in this form- i 3 of smaller commercial value owing to the difficulty of sonarating it from the_ other constituents. Pure milk-sucrar which is manufactured from whey retails for some 40 or 50 rents per lb. but the cost of obtaining it is so great that condenseries seldom pay more than five cents per hundred of whey. It is worth at least seven cents per 1001 b for hotr feeding. To obtain the great *»sf value from the whey, however, it must have its sugar content nreserved in the best nossihlo condition. This can be accomplished onlv V.y pasteurisation °f the whey at the f;:ctory. This adds fully 20 p r . r eent to the feeding value of the whey and the cost of pasteurisation seldom runs over three and one-half cents per 10001 b. Whey and skimmed milk should always be pasteurised before being returned to the patrons, so that milk-carried diseases may not be transferred from one herd to another through this channel. The whole nuestion of the value the bv-produets of the dairy, in fact, depends on the care they receive, and

if properly handled they probably yield about as much actual profit as the whole milk itself.