HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1993-03-17, Page 37FARMING '93, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 1993. A17.
Farm '93
Clean milk prime goal at Blyth-area dairy farm
- Teat protection
Right from the source, the quality of milk is ensured.
Before a cow is milked, each teat on her udder is washed
and then a squirt of milk from each teat is sprayed into a
strip cup, such as the one held here by Bryan, to check for
mastitis.
Award winners
Ken and Shirley Ramsey of Kennairn Farms near Blyth display their Gold Seal award, the
highest award given for milk quality, while their son Bryan (right) sweeps the barn clean. The
Ramseys are committed to producing quality milk simply because they believe if you're going
to do something, it should be done right, as Mr. Ramsey says. They've been doing "it right" for
nearly 18 years with their 44-milking cow herd.
There's no secret to Ken and
Shirley Ramsey's success—they
work hard to earn it.
In the past decade, the Blyth-
area dairy farmers have consis-
tently produced top-quality milk
that's earned them either a Gold
Seal or General Certificate for
milk quality almost every year.
Their plateloop counts average 3-
5,000 while somatic cell counts
level at 100,000
Like most dairy farmers, pro-
clueing top-quality milk is a prime
concern. Making sure milking
equipment, cattle and milk is
clean takes approximately one-
third of the farmer's working day.
This pictorial reveals just how the
Ramseys manage to do it.
Photos by Lisa
Boonstoppel-Pot
Bedding up
Keeping the cows bedded up with straw is important to the
Ramseys who believe clean bedding plays a role in
producing top-quality milk. Mr. Ramsey uses up to five
bales of straw per day keeping his cows clean and in the
summer, when the cows are outside, he scrapes clean the
barnyard regularly so the cows are tempted to lie on the
cement surface but will instead lie in the pasture.
Cleaning time
The milking equipment, milkers and pipes, are cleaned
eight times a day! The computerized cleaning system at
Ramseys' sanitizes and rinses the equipment twice before
and after the morning and evening milking to ensure no
bacterial growth is present in the system.
Dipstick
The cow's teats are dipped
with a sanitizing solution after
each milking. The Ramseys
also dry-treat every cow,
whether she's susceptible to
mastitis or not.
Filter change
The milk filter captures any
straw and dirt that is
accidentally sucked up by the
milkers. It's changed every
milking.
Milk sample
Every other day the milkman, Steve Baan of RR 3 Walton, picks up the milk which has been
stored in a bulk tank that maintains the milk's temperature at 4 degrees. Each pick-up, he
takes a sample of the milk which is tested for antibiotics, butterfat content and somatic cell
count. If the milk tests too high for somatic cells or antibiotics are present in the substance,
the farmer is penalized. As well, Mr. Baan does his own testing of the milk through sight and
smell. It the milk smells off-flavour or if there are too many butter balls in the milk, he has the
right to dump the milk down the drain, costing the farmer thousands of dollars.