Leon
Dairy Diet
Hi,
The weekend is here, my political party won locally, and I’m giving a talk on diet and the role dairy plays in it tomorrow. I even see some research going round about the calcium and protein in dairy preserving muscle while burning off bodyfat. Will keep you updated with some more on this.
Wish me good luck with my talk – don’t want to break a leg though. 😉
Have a great weekend!
Leon
Microbiology Waterbath Hygiene
Hi, Milkfans
Still waiting for all those votes to be counted.
In the meantime, here’s a bit of advise – if you have a waterbath in your lab, put some Formalin in the water – that will keep it clean. Take care to wipe the outside of the bottle clean before pouring agar to prevent Formalin water running into your petri dish.
Goodday,
Leon
Milkman Votes
Hi,
Today was voting day in South Africa. I cast my vote and I hope it will bring an end to the power failures we have had to suffer. Of course this not only had huge effects for the dairy industry, but all others.
Will let you know if my party won and what measures are to be implemented to prevent further breakdowns/outages.
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Cow Breeds : Solids Content
Hi, Milkfans
Here’s some quick dairy-info on breeds and their milksolids ratios to volume. In South Africa the main breeds are : Jersey – Guernsey – Ayrshire – Friesen. They display a decrease in milksolids and a corresponding increase in volume of production from left to right.
There may be some overlap in figures between individual cows and herds, but the above is generally accepted to be the case.
Goodday to you,
Leon the Milkman
More on Generic Dairy Marketing
Hi, Milkfans
I’m shocked to see all the people that make it one of their life’s works to negate dairy on the internet! They calculate how cow farts polute and destroy the ozone. I know a few guys who should also raise public concern in this way, if you know what I mean – and they are not big dairy consumers ;-)Dairy producers will have to stand together in promoting dairy, since we all know how fresh milk sales are dwindling….
Any comments in putting something useful out there would be appreciated.
Kind regards,
Milkman
Cheese Courses
Hi,
As some of you may know, we present a cheese course here at our lab.
We have always had opposition from the dairy industry, because of this. The reasoning being that we are teaching people their secrets!
Now with info being so freely available these days I find these statements naive and unfair.
In fact people that are so interested in cheese that they pay good money to learn more about it, buy more cheese than the average person out there!
I also try to sell as little cheese-making supplies to the people on the course, ;-)because like with any thing else, I know people are excited in the moment and most of them will buy a box of stuff and never open that box once they are back at home!
So let us get our buyers involved into this wonderful dairy world of ours. That’s true generic dairy marketing!
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Fast Casein Test
Hi,
Reasoning that rennet will set mainly casein and that the whey proteins will be free to run away with the whey(hey, it rhymes!) I have thought of using this to determine the casein content of milk.
This with a cheap little milk analyser like an Ekomilk. I would test the milk protein and then set the milk with rennet and then put the resulting whey through the Ekomilk. Subtracting the 2 figures from each other would then theoretically give the casein content of the milk.
Well, this sounds logical to me, but that does not say a lot and I don’t know how that would compare to a Kjeldahl determination, which would be the official way of doing it.
May be a project for a rainy day. Any comments?
See ya!
Leon the Milkman
Milkoscan 133B
Hi, Milkfans
Have some time to write, because my FOSS Milkoscan 133b has a problem with the “filter wheel not running OK” at the correct speed. For you other lab techies out there the procedure to check for this is to turn the key to horizontal and to type in Program 9824 from the Standby Menu. You should get a reading of 14400 if everything is alright. Slight variations from 14400 is OK, but preferably it should be constant.
When finished testing turn the key back to vertical and press the RESET button on the back of the machine.
Till next time,
Leon the Milkman
Welcome!
Hi, Milkfans
Thanks for visiting my dairy-friendly website!
We will discuss industry and consumers issues.
Here in South Africa I work at the Elsenburg Dairy Lab, just outside of Stellenbosch, in the Western Cape. That’s near Cape Town for all you international visitors.
Well to some good fun and lots of valuable info in the future!
Bye for now.
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