Milk Processes

Name a variety of different dishes and meals which contain dairy

products.

What is milk?
Milkis

a pale liquid produced by the

mammary glandsofmammals.
It
is
the
primary
source
ofnutritionfor
infant
mammals before they are able todigestother
types of food.

How does a cow produce milk?

A dairy cow needs to give birth to a calf in

order to produce milk. This chart represents a

one year period. The dry period is similar to
an adult going on maternity leave, where the
cow will rest and prepare for the birth of her
calf.

Calving
Dry period

birth of the calf

Lactation
production of milk

Insemination
Pregnancy

where a cow becomes

pregnant

Process of milk!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

COWS GRAZING
HARVESTING MILK
STORING MILK
TRANSPORTING MILK
Laboratory Testing
PROCESSING MILK
DISTRIBUTING AND SELLING MILK
end?

COWS GRAZING
Typically cows spend about 8 hours eating, 8

hours sleeping and 8 hours ruminating or

chewing their cud. Cows are usually provided
with a fresh paddock of grass in the morning
after milking and another fresh paddock of
grass in the evening after milking.

HARVESTING MILK
Cows are normally milked 2 times per day,

however some high producing herds are

milked 3 times per day. Normally cows are
milked at about 6 am in the morning and
again at about 5 pm in the evening. Milking
time takes about 5 minutes per cow.

STORING MILK
Milk storage vats or silos are refrigerated and

come in various shapes and sizes. Milk is

stored on farm at 4 degrees Celsius and less
for no longer than 48 hours. Vats and silos are
agitated to make sure that the entire volume
remains cold and milkfat does not separate
from the milk. After milk has been collected,
storage vats and stainless steel pipes are
thoroughly cleaned before the farmer milks
again.

TRANSPORTING MILK
Milk is collected from the farm every 24 or 48

hours. The tankers that are used have a

special stainless steel body which are heavily
insulated to keep the milk cold during
transportation to the processing factory.

Laboratory Testing
Samples of milk are taken from farm vats

prior to collection and from the bulk milk

tanker on arrival at the factory.Samples from
the bulk milk tanker are tested for antibiotic
and temperature before the milk enters the
factory processing area.

Packing
Whole milk, once approved for use, is pumped

into storage silos where it undergoes

pasteurisation, homogenisation and further
processing.
Milk is travel though a pipes to automatic
packaging machines that fills and seals milk
into paper cartons or plastic jugs.

DISTRIBUTING AND SELLING MILK

Then milk is sent off in refrigerated trucks, to

your favourite store for sale!

End? Yeah!