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Chesley
Kinsmen Club
presents the
Grey -Bruce
Agri
Fair
' 86
Tues., April 8, 10 a.m. • 8 p.m.
Wed., April 9, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Chesley
Community Centre
ADMISSION $2.00
• Over 100 agri-business display
booths
• Many. many door prizes'
• Free coffee
• Food & Refreshments
1Alt PROCEEDS TO
Cystic Fibrosis Research
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40 THE RURAL VOICE
FARM NEWS
New pH cream tester to be used
Dave Dixon, Dairy Inspection Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture, shows
the new pH tester to producers at the Ontario Cream Fair in Tavistock.
A new pH tester for farm -
separated cream will soon be used
by members of the ministry of
agriculture's dairy inspection
branch. The effort is meant to im-
prove awareness of cream quality.
The new program was originally
meant to be functioning by April
1, but the new target date is later
this spring — probably June. The
pH test will replace the currently
used alkaline test, is at least, as ac-
curate, and can be performed more
quickly than its predecessor, said
Dave Dixon, Dairy Inspection
Branch, at the Ontario Cream
Fair, recently held in Tavistock.
The pH test, along with the cur-
rent butterfat and flavour tests,
help gauge quality. The pH tests
reveal the level of alkaline or acidi-
ty in cream. High acidity detracts
from the flavour of butter.
Alkaline could be added to the
cream to improve flavour but con-
sumers don't like chemicals added
to their cream, and it would be
very expensive. Thus the place to
produce high quality low acidity
cream is on the farm.
"Clean" and "cold" are the two
key ingredients to cream quality.
Usually the environment is clean,
but effective cooling can be a
shortfall. Dixon found it disturb-
ing to (earn that a recent study of
cream producers shows that 30 per
cent of them cool cream in a
household -type refrigerator.
"That is not satisfactory," he
says. Air cooling does not cool
cream fast enough. A water cooled
system is preferable. "Stay away
from refrigerator cooling." Dixon
recommends mechanical coolers.
He says it is also disappointing that
relatively few producers took ad-
vantage of the provincial govern-
ment's BILD program to buy new
coolers.
Properly cooled cream attained
in a clean environment will test
about 6.3 on the pH scale and be
special grade cream. A pH of bet-
ween 6.3 and five is first grade.
The scale goes down to one with an
acidity level equal to that of bat-
tery acid and up to 14 which is very
alkaline.
Each producer's milk will be
tested with the pH meter once a
month. Members of the Diary In-
spection Branch of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Food will provide
assistance to producers with high
acid levels in their cream, by mak-
ing farm calls to identify areas
where management can be improv-
ed.
Farmers don't receive a
premium for a good pH nor are
they penalized for a bad one. Dix-
on says the use of the new pH
meter is "purely an educational
program." L. PC
New officers
Officers for the Huron County
Farm and Home Safety Associa-
tion include: Robert Stirling, past -
president; John Underwood, presi-
dent; Hugh Flynn, vice-president;
Don Young, secretary; and Don
Gross, treasurer.