Milk Route
Here is a recording of some early birds on my milk route 😉
[audio:Few Birds Singing.mp3]
Milk Paint
Hi, Milkfans
Yes, you read that right!
You can paint you house with milk. Or your furniture for that matter. Milk Paint was used quite a lot in history. It is in vogue again as a child friendly paint – it can be chewed off the building blocks without poisoning the child.
It consists mainly of skim milk, alkaline, end some color. The alkaline, like sodium hydroxide denatures the milk protein and fixes it, while being neutralized in the process – well you can read more, as well as get contact details for suppliers at www.Dairy-Info.org
Kind Regards,
Leon the Milkman
Raw Milk Calories
Hi, Milkfans
Raw milk does not have less or more calories than the pasteurized version of the same milk. Full cream milk having about 620 calories per Liter, raw or pasteurized.
Although some of the nutrients are destroyed ( small percentage ) during pasteurization, pasteurized milk is still safer than raw milk. Although I have drunk my fair share of raw milk, I see the results of analysis on that milk and therefore feel comfortable drinking that specific farm milk.
Regards,
Leon the Milkman
Define Psychrotrophic bacteria
Hi, Milkfans
These bacteria occur naturally in cold places like the Arctic.
They are important in frozen and refrigerated food where they can cause spoilage – even with the cold chain being maintained.
Examples are mould like Penicillium and bacteria like Pseudomonas, Bacillus and Clostridium.
They are an increasing problem in the dairy industry where the cold chain is maintained for longer periods on raw milk, than ever before in history.
Regards,
Leon the Milkman
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Human Milk Composition
Hi, Guys
Yes, I do get a lot of questions like this 😉
Well, at the moment I am testing human milk for a project by a local hospital and I must say that I have never seen such a variance in composition compared to the cow and goat’s milk that we test as well.
I think this has a lot to do with cows being much more set in a routine and eating the same diet every day – haha, sorry to you women out there for making these comparisons, but we really get asked these things a lot.
The average composition of macronutrients in human milk is about 1% Protein, 4% Fat and 7% Lactose. If you take different milks you’ll see that the nutrients present are much the same and in most the ratios are also the same between nutrients, but the concentrations differ the most.
Sheep’s milk for example is much more nutritious than cow’s milk and contains about twice the calories.
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
Judging Dairy
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Hi, Milkfans
I was a judge at the National Dairy Championships held by Agri-Expo in the Bellville Civic Centre, near Cape Town today. Thanks, Agri-Expo, it was fun as usual.
May the best products win!
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
P.S. check out this following link if you judge dairy as well.
Pseudomonas in Cottage Cheese
Hi, Cheesefans
Got a enquiry recently about why Pseudomonas bacteria love cottage cheese so much.
Well, I think it depends a lot on the flavour. 😉
Seriously Pseudomonas are widely distributed and aerobic. They tend not to use much carbohydrate ( lactose removed from cottage cheese ) and grow well in protein-rich foods (like cottage cheese) producing slime, pigments and some bad odours. They also prefer a high water activity ( high moisture content) and thus cottage cheese is pretty much ideal. Many are also psychrotrophic ( cold-loving ).
Although optimum temperatures are from 15 degrees Celsius to temperate – thus allowing the temperatures to go so high would speed up their growth exponentially.
Goodday to ya,
Leon the Milkman
Automated Milk Analysis and Calibration
Hi, Milkfans
 When doing any automated milk analysis you must remember that the apparatus is calibrated against a certain referance. It is not wise to test cow’s milk on an apparatus that has been calibrated with goat’s milk or vice versa. This has to do with the different sizes of the fat globules, etc.
This is also the reason that ( I think) that goat’s milk digest easier than cow’s milk. It has nothing to do with goat’s milk not having any lactose – that’s nonsense.
 All for today,
Leon the Milkman
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UHT Milk Problems
Hi, Milkfans
UHT milk translates to “Ultra High Temperature” Milk and is also known as long-life milk.
It is made by pasteurizing at something like 132-150 degrees Celsius for a second up to 15 seconds.
To prevent problems it is important that the milk is not going sour, that it has the right salt balance and that there is not too much serum proteins ( colostrum ) in the milk.
Put into practice you should get an analysis of salts in “normal” milk and what variance is allowed to test the milk against. Also make sure the farmer does not have too many cows calving at the same time to prevent high colostrum in the milk.
It is a good idea to do an Alcohol Test on the milk with an alcohol strength of 72-75% alcohol. This will give a fast and accurate indication of the heat tolerance of the particular milk.
Regards,
Leon the Milkman
Density vs. Specific Gravity of Milk
By determining the specific gravity (SG) of milk the following information can be obtained.
• An indication of adulteration of milk with added water.
• If the fat percentage is available the solids-non-fat (or total solids content) of the milk can be calculated.
- Definition
Specific gravity is the relationship of the mass of a specific volume of a substance to the mass of an equal volume of water at the same temperature.
Density is measured as mass per volume (g/ml) at a specific temperature.
The specific gravity of milk at 20 °C is ± 1.030 and is determined by the relative proportions of fat (SG = 0.93), water (SG = 1.0) and solids-non-fat (SG = 1.614).
Kind regards,
Leon the Milkman
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