CARE OF HOME-SEPARATOR CREAM.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXIX, Issue 6, 20 December 1924, Page 428

CARE OF HOME-SEPARATOR CREAM.

CAUSES OF BAD CREAM. 1. Unhealthy cows 2. Feed-flavours .. 3. Dirty sheds and yards . . 4 . Careless milking 5. Dirty milking-machines 6. Unclean utensils 7. Washing separator once ' daily 8. Skimming too thin ■ 9. Not cooling cream ■ ... 10. Not stirring cream 11. Mixing hot and cold cream ■12. Holding cream in kero-sene-tins 13. Dirty and badly ventilated separator-rooms 14. Keeping cream too long before sending to the factory . 15. Leaving cream standing in the hot sun 16. Rusty cans ..

THE REMEDIES. 1. Don’t separate the milk from a cow which has not been cleansed or is otherwise unhealthy. 2. Most feed-flavours can be partly removed by cooling and stirring, the exceptions ■ being turnips, garlic, and similar flavours. ' : . 3. Milk absorbs flavours from dirty surroundings. Where machines are used the air is actually ' admitted into the milk-pipes. Hence unclean surroundings mean bad-flavoured milk. 4. Teats and udders must be washed with a clean cloth and clean water from a clean bucket, and then dried before milking. Water must also be provided for washing the milker’s .hands. ■ ‘ . 5. Milking-machines must be treated as advised in special instructions issued by the Department. 6. Buckets, separators, &c., must be rinsed with cold water, scrubbed in . warm water with a brush, cleanser to have been , added to the water, then scalded with boiling water immediately after separating. 7. A separator which is washed only once daily is . ■ a direct loss to the owner, as it will not skim . clean the second time it is used, and will ■ taint all the cream passing through it. 8. Skim a cream containing about 40 per cent, of fat; it will carry well, and will not quickly develop bad flavours. 9. .Run the cream. over a small cooler as it leaves the separator. Attach the water-inlet hose to the lower end of the cooler. . Stand it in cold water afterwards. - 10. Stir frequently with a metal plunger, but don’t use a wooden stirrer. . — 11. Never mix hot and cold cream. Use a clean can or bucket for each skimming, and keep them separate if possible until sending to , the. factory. ■ . 12. Kerosene-tins are not suitable for use in a dairy unless the seam round the bottom and the lap round the top have been properly sol- • ■ dered. 13. The separating-room must be kept as clean as a butter-factory, and have at least two large ventilators, one at the bottom and the other at the top on opposite walls, and should not be placed near the yard. The engine must not be in this room. - 14. Don’t fail to send the cream away on the days arranged by the factory, daily if possible. ■ 15. Protect the cans from the sun while waiting for the collecting- wagon. 16. Rusty cans impart a most objectionable flavour to cream. Have them retinned.

DON’T use the separating-room as a general storeroom.- Don’t use a cloth to wash tinware ; use a brush. Don’t use sandsoap for scouring tinware. - Don’t use a cloth strainer unless you wash and scald it daily. Don’t use the cans returned from the factory until you have scalded them. Don’t mistake WARM water for BOILING water. —Dairy Division. .