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Dairy Farming in Nova Scotia
Terms to Know
• Quota: A proportional share in a given market.
Quota is required by most markets to regulate
goods produced.
• Nova Scotia Milk Marketing Board: A
regulatory board which sets the farm price for
milk, administers the quota system, and
represents milk producers in the province.
Located in Truro, Nova Scotia.
• Bulk Tank: A refrigerated stainless steel tank
used to cool milk quickly to around 2-4 degrees
Celsius.
Terms to Know
• Colostrum: The first milk produced following
calving. High in fat, protein, and natural
antibiotics.
• Dry Cow: A cow that is not lactating or has
completed it’s lactation period after calving.
Often rebred.
• Fresh Cow: A cow that has recently given birth.
• Heifer: A female cow less than three years of
age who has yet to give birth to a calf.
Terms to Know
• Mastitis: An inflammation happening in the
udder of a dairy cow. Caused by bacteria.
• Milking Parlor: The sunken area which houses
milking equipment and person milking.
• Teat Dip: A pre and post milking substance used
to kill bacteria.
• Sterilization: The process of making an area
free of living organisms such as bacteria.
Essential in milk production.
The Barns
• Dairy barns in Nova Scotia traditionally take on
two forms: tie stall and free stall.
• Tie stall barns consist of cows being tied in place
using head stanchions and only removed for
pasture grazing. These cows are milked in
place.
• Free Stall barns are open concept which allow
cows to roam within a closed space to eat and
rest. These cows must be moved to a milking
parlor for milking.
Tie Stall and Free Stall
The Barns (continued)
• Both styles of barn have their advantages and
disadvantages.
• Tie Stall (Advantage): Cows are cleaner, easier
to maintain barn, cows tend to have less injuries,
less handling of cows during milking, barns can
be smaller.
• Free Stall (Advantage): Cows are able to get
more exercise, easier to detect breeding times
(heats), air circulation is often better, easier to
feed.
The Barns (continued)
• Tie Stall (Disadvantages): Milking can be harder
on the people milking, cows can have feet and
leg issues from lack of exercise, higher risk of
farmer accidents, higher use of bedding
materials such as sawdust.
• Free Stall (Disadvantages): Costly milking parlor
is required, cows are dirtier, cows must be
moved around more for milking, injury levels can
be high from animal interaction, risk of
stampeding, costly barn cleaners are needed.
The Milking
• In tie stall barns, milkers are moved from cow to
cow.
• Cows are milked in their stalls.
• The people milking often use stools or crouch
which milking.
• Cows are easily fed during milking which can
keep cows calm and occupied.
• Cows legs, udders, and tails tend to be cleaner
due to easier stall cleanup and maintenance.
This makes for faster prepping before milking.
The Milking (continued)
• In free stall barns, cows are led into milking
parlors at milking time (usually 12 or 18
depending on parlor size).
• The people milking stand down in a pit with cows
feet and udders around chest heights.
• Cows need to be trained to enter and exit the
parlor properly.
• Parlors can require much more handling of cattle
as they move in and out of the milking area.
• Milking and cleaning are often easier on the
people milking.
Milking
The Process
• Regardless of milking style, all farms must follow similar
milking routines such as:
• 1) Cows are dipped with a cleaning solution (usually
iodine) and wiped clean.
• 2) Cows are inspected for infections or injuries such as
mastitus. Their milk is kept separate if treated.
• 3) Milkers are attached until the cow has milked out.
• 4) The cow is dipped with the cleaning solution once
again (not wiped off) to prevent bacteria buildup between
milkings.
The Process (continued)
• If cows are being treated with antibiotics, are
sick, or have recently given birth, their milk must
be contained separately.
• The milk of cows who have just given birth is
called colostrum.
• This milk is yellow in color and is rich in nutrients
and natural antibiotics. This colostrum is given
to the new born calf to ensure it gets the
nutrients needed for growth.
The Process
• Milk travels through pipelines to a large
stainless steel bulk tank after passing
through paper filters.
• Here, the milk is cooled using refrigeration
units and agitators.
• Once the milk is cooled, it is picked up by
large tanker trucks which ship the milk to a
dairy processing plant for pasteurization,
processing, and packaging.
The Process (continued)
• Once the milk had been shipped to the dairy, the
milking equipment, pipeline, milking area, and
bulk tank must be sanitized.
• This is done by using chlorine, industrial soaps,
and acid.
• The sanitization must remove all milk particles
and bacteria from all equipment. If not done, the
dairy farm may be shut down by the department
of health and safety.
The Dairy
• Once the milk is picked up from the farms, it is
driven to local dairies for processing. (Nova
Scotia has two main dairies: Farmers and
Scotsburn).
• When the milk arrives, each truck is tested for
contamination and temperature of milk.
• The milk is then pumped into the plant for
pasteurization.
• Pasteurization involves heating the milk to 71.7
degrees Celsius for approximately 30 seconds
to kill all bacteria and microbes.
The Dairy (continued)
• Once the milk has been pasteurized, it is cooled
in refrigerated tanks to avoid spoilage.
• The raw milk is then processed to separate
cream and milk.
• This processing divides the milk into milk fat
grades such as skim, 1 percent, 2 percent,
homogenized (3.25), whipping cream, coffee
cream, etc…
• In some dairies, cream and milk fat are
separated for the production of cheese, yogurt,
butter, etc…
In Summary
• Dairy farming is an essential part to
agriculture and food production in Nova
Scotia.
• It is the largest earner of farm cash
receipts in the province with a gross profit
of $118 million.
End of Section Questions
• 1) What are the two most popular types of
dairy barn in Nova Scotia? Make a chart
describing some of the positives and
negatives for each.
• 2) When milking, what are the four steps
taken?
• 3) What is pasteurization?
• 4) What are some of the reasons certain
milk can be separated from the bulk tank?