Dairy industry news from around the world - research, news and reports

[jade35]

Thanks @llamedos

Thought this was a good way to use some of the milk the EU is buying up at the moment

http://www.thedairysite.com/news/49500/eu-to-provide-milk-to-syrian-children-in-farmer-aid-measures/

 

[jade35]

One for all the dairy processing geeks!! Horseradish flavour cheddar - America is certainly a different world



Cabot Creamery is looking sharp: inside the dairy plant

Cabot Creamery has a visitors’ center attached to its cheese and cultured products plant in Cabot, Vt. Visitors can sample and purchase Cabot products, logoed items and other made-in-Vermont foods. Other centers are in Waterbury, Vt., Quechee, Vt., and Portland, Maine.

In the cut-and-wrap plant, Production Manager Cristin O’Donnell holds a loaf of wax-covered Cheddar cheese. She manages nine packaging lines in this building.

Loaves of cheese exit a bath that gives the naturally aged white Cheddar an orange hue.

The plant in Cabot, Vt., has four 44,000-pound horizontal cheese vats. They were installed in 2001 and replaced open cookers.

Whey and curds are pumped over to tables, the whey is drained off and the curd is salted. A plow pushes the mass to the die and then the curds are sucked into the two towers by vacuum pressure.

Blocks of white Cheddar are bagged. Later, they will be vacuum-sealed and boxed. Boxes of cheeses are cooled, then shipped to a warehouse for aging and grading.

A package of horseradish-flavored cheese zips along a conveyor in the cut-and-wrap plant in Cabot, Vt. The plant has nine lines where cheese is packaged into various formats. It runs two production shifts a day, five days a week.

In the cut-and-wrap plant, an employee places a block of cheese on a conveyor where it will be converted into smaller formats. Employees here stop for scheduled “micro-breaks” to stretch their rotator cuffs, wrists and backs. The breaks have reduced workers’ compensation claims.

Regional Plant Manager Marcel G. Gravel has been making cheese for almost 45 years. “We’ve got extremely good quality milk coming in here,” he said.

Replacing open vats with enclosed vats has improved the yields and the quality of cheese, said Chris Pearl, the manufacturing team assistant plant manager.



March 4, 2016
Jim Carper

Agri-Mark is a dairy cooperative with 1,200 members in the Northeast United States. It markets 3.5 billion pounds of milk annually, supplying fluid milk to HP Hood, Dairy Farmers of America, Dean Foods and other dairy processors. Agri-Mark also operates four processing plants of its own with two in Vermont (Cabot and Middlebury, that make cheese, cultured products and ingredients), one in West Springfield, Mass. (butter, cream and ingredients) and one in Chateaugay, N.Y. (cheese). The co-op owns the Cabot and McCadam brands. (See related article)

Dairy Foods toured the Cabot, Vt., facility, where Agri-Mark processes about 1 million pounds of milk daily. “We’re tiny” compared to other cheesemakers, said Regional Plant Manager Marcel G. Gravel. The plant produces Cheddar and specialty cheeses, yogurt and sour cream.

Plant tour
Milk tankers begin arriving at 4 a.m., and don’t stop until 6 p.m. The receiving area can handle three trucks at a time (unloading two and cleaning one). Tankers hold 3,800 to 5,000 gallons of milk. The smaller ones, known as “pups,” are used on the narrow and hilly roads of rural Vermont, which would be difficult for full-size tankers to navigate.

Gravel noted that before trucks are allowed to hook up to the system, milk samples are drawn and sent to the on-site lab. The seals are checked and cross-checked against paperwork to make sure the seals are the same, he said.

The entire receiving process, from testing samples to unloading, is computerized, said Chris Pearl, the manufacturing team assistant plant manager.

“The seal records are kept in the computer. The lab sees the load come in on the computer. The sample goes to the lab and they check it for antibiotics, and do a direct microscope count on it. And then they call down to the receiving bay and release it to go to the silo,” Pearl said. Other tests include organoleptic and color checks.

“We’ve got extremely good quality milk coming in here,” said Gravel, who has been making cheese for almost 45 years. He noted that the Vermont standard for standard plant count is 300,000 and for the milk it receives, the SPC is less than 10,000.

“You can take good milk and make garbage out of it, but you can’t take bad milk and make good cheese out of it. If it doesn’t meet our standards, we send it out,” he said.

Milk arrives at 38 to 40 degrees and is kept cold throughout the handling. Flow meters measure the quantity of the raw milk coming out of the trailer as it flows into the silos. The Cabot plant has one 30,000-gallon-capacity silo and three 50,000-gallon silos. When it’s time to make cheese, the milk is pumped to the HTST pasteurizer.

The pasteurized milk then flows directly into the vats. The plant has four 44,000-pound horizontal cheese vats. They were installed in 2001 and replaced open cookers.

“We used to have open vats and now we have the enclosed vats. So the yields are not only better, but the quality of cheese is even better,” Pearl said.

New equipment has made the cheesemaker more efficient. Instead of hand milling curd, the equipment does it.

“When you mill curd, you lose about 1% of cheese yield,” Gravel explained. “I don’t care how good a cheesemaker you are. Once you slice that cheese, it leaks a little butterfat out of it and it’s gone. It goes into butter but it’s not in the cheese.”

While automation has increased yield, cheesemaking still requires human intervention. Art and science are required. While equipment is the “science” in cheesemaking, knowing when to cut the curd is the “art.”

“It’s pretty much all automated except for when to cut the cheese to get the biggest bang for your buck,” Gravel said. “A cheese maker still checks it with his finger even though the machines say it’s ready. And we’ve experimented with automatic cutters and stuff. They’re not fool-proof.”

The Cabot plant essentially runs three shifts. Pearl breaks it down as two-and-a-half production shifts and half a shift for cleaning and sanitizing.

“Everything’s staggered,” Gravel said. “Cheese cook is the first person who comes in because it takes around three hours to get everything rolling. And the next crew comes in and then it takes another 45 minutes from there to start filling the towers. The next person comes in and so forth.”

Meanwhile, equipment is cleaned and sanitized as processes are completed.

The whey and the curd are pumped over to tables. The whey is drained off and the curd is salted. A plow pushes the mass to the die and then the curds are sucked into the two towers by vacuum pressure. Gravity and pressure knit the curds together. The cheese descends the tower and is cut into 40-pound blocks, vacuum-sealed in plastic bags and conveyed to a boxer. The cardboard box is weighed and labeled, and then sent to a storage building to cool. After that, the cheeses are shipped off to various warehouses for aging and grading. Cabot has more than 130 million pounds of cheese in storage.

The first evaluation is after three months. At that point, the graders determine if the cheese will be mild, sharp, extra sharp, private stock or vintage. Two of the longest tenured graders are Earl Elliot and Ted Evans, each of whom has more than 40 years of experience.

CEO Ed Townley said Cabot’s Cheddar cheese has a “northeast flavor profile,” meaning that it is sharper than that of other brands. “Much of the country actually prefers a milder cheese,” he said. Nevertheless, Cabot consistently wins awards in professional and consumer contests.

Gravel noted the similarities between raw milk and the grading process. Just as “bad milk makes bad cheese,” if the cheese is not handled properly in the first 72 hours, “the cheese can go bad as well,” he said “because it takes 72 hours for everything to stabilize in a piece of cheese.”

He explained why. The cheese going into the towers is under vacuum so it is constantly drawing to the outside. Once the guillotine cuts off a block and the cheese is pushed into a bag, “everything that’s been drawn to the outside is migrating back to the center portion again. It takes 72 hours for the moisture in that block, the salt in there, and the PH to stabilize out. If you cool that too rapidly, what happens is that it doesn’t totally get migrated back to where it needs to be.”


More in this link
http://www.dairyfoods.com/articles/91647-cabot-creamery-is-looking-sharp-inside-the-dairy-plant

 

[jade35]

http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Bu...-jobs-at-Hanworth-dairy-following-acquisition

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-27/murray-goulburn-price-drop-helou-departure/7361654
I do believe a fan has just been hit by

 

[llamedos]

Dairy farmers protest near Budapest
BBJ
Thursday, April 28, 2016, 13:03


Hungarian dairy farmers once again held a demonstration, this time near the border of the capital in Budaörs, voicing their discontent about the low buying price of milk and cheap milk imports, according to Hungarian news agency MTI.

Farmers protest with their cows outside a Tesco store in Budaörs. (Photo: MTI/Zsolt Szigetváry)
Dairy farmers arrived from across the country to demonstrate in the parking lot of a Tesco store in Budaörs, in an attempt to raise awareness that the price of raw milk continues to drop beyond a sustainable level.

The current HUF 69 per liter buying price puts Hungary in 26th place in the European Union, while the manufacturing price of one liter of raw milk exceeds HUF 100.

 

[jade35]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-27/murray-goulburn-price-drop-helou-departure/7361654
I do believe a fan has just been hit by

Good website

 

[jade35]

Yuck This is disgusting

A somerset dairy farmer was fined for running a "shoddy operation" after her cheese was shown to consistently contain harmful bacteria such as Listeria, Salmonella and E-coli
http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Ma...er-prosecuted-after-deadly-listeria-discovery

 

[jade35]

German court has ruled against 'Vegan cheese'
http://www.dairyreporter.com/Regula...hat-should-plant-based-alternatives-be-called

 

[jade35]

http://www.dairyreporter.com/R-D/Spanish-company-files-for-mastitis-probiotic-health-claim

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

Seems the has spreadhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-05/fonterra-cuts-milk-prices/7386374
They would not have done it if MG hadn't fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed first
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-...farmers-'owing'-hundreds-of-thousands/7386664

 

[jade35]

Fallout from Murray Goulburn milk price cut.....

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-06/milk-price-cut-leaves-farmers-'owing'-hundreds-of-thousands

Dairy industry in despair as Murray Goulburn milk price cut leaves farmers 'owing' hundreds of thousands
Landline
By Pip Courtney
Posted about 4 hours ago

PHOTO: Inverloch dairy farmer Bec Casey says the price cut was "absolutely gut-wrenching". (Landline)
When Victorian dairy farmers Bec and Glen Casey found out the Murray Goulburn milk price cut meant they had lost two years' profit in one day, they were in total shock.

They had been finessing their budget for months to deal with the unseasonably dry weather, which has put many of the state's dairy farmers under severe financial pressure.

The Caseys' fodder bills were rising and water bills were looming, but they were confident they would make it to the end of the financial year, when a new "opening" milk price for the next 12 months would be announced.


Murray Goulburn (MG), the company they sell their milk to, announced last week it was cutting its milk price, and seeking to recover the money it says it has overpaid its farmer suppliers over the last 10 months.

"I knew that because of all the downward trends next year's opening price would be a lot lower, but I was completely blindsided by this announcement," Mrs Casey said.

"Two years' profits gone in one day. Glen feels like someone's come in and taken half the herd from underneath him, he's absolutely gutted.

"A lot of our budgeting relies on mother nature, which is a massive uncertainty for us. We have to have faith that the price that they open with is the price that they are going to stick to for the season."


Victorian dairy consultant John Mulvaney said his MG clients were still in shock.

"People are having difficulty understanding how you can receive a price for a product and then the person who's paid to that price come back and say 'I'm sorry we've overpaid you we need some of that money back'. Very simply that's what's occurred," he said.

"I have had calls from people, particularly younger farmers, who already were under some pressure as a result of difficult seasonal conditions this year.

"They're running fairly high debt levels and some of those — not many of them but some of them — may not survive."

 

[jade35]

Murray Goulburn's board defends its share float strategy amid intense criticism
ABC Rural
By Sarina Locke
18


Updated Wed at 12:37am

PHOTO: Murray Goulburn chair Philip Tracey who is now speaking to farmer suppliers at meetings around Victoria.
MAP: Sydney 2000columnist Joe Aston claimed"There was no way that listing a co-op to pay off debt to fund a massive capital intensive program for so-called value added dairy products was going to work especially when half of those products were private label milk in huge volumes in very skinny margins."

This week the board and chairman are meeting suppliers in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.

In a statement issued on Tuesday the company said its capital structure program outlined before listing on the Australian Stock Exchange was designed to pursue it's growth strategy.

The float raised $500 million that the company used to invest in three projects with promise: nutritional powders, dairy beverages and cheese, which it still insists are progressing,

MG said the unit trust listing on the stock exchange was unrelated to the 2013 Coles contract for private label milk and Devondale branded milk in Victoria and New South Wales, which are ensured a steady margin by 'rise and fall' clauses in the contracts.

Price gap
Murray Goulburn continued to pay high farm gate milk prices at around $6 a kilogram milk solids (kgms), despite global dairy prices falling to decade lows and rival processor Fonterra in New Zealand paying its farmers $3.90 a kgms.

But MG said the $3.90 a kgms figure in New Zealand "does not reflect average pricing for this season in Australia", but low global prices had weighed on the market here.

"MG opened last August with a full year farm gate milk price forecast of $6.00 a kgms.



"This was revised to $5.60 a kgms in February as a result of global dairy ingredient prices collapsing to record lows.

"MG's strategy to shift away from commodity products towards value-add dairy foods has insulated our suppliers from the full impact of the downturn in commodity markets."

In its half year report in late February, MG confirmed $5.60 a kgms remain achievable, because of growing international demand, especially in China.

MG said it halted share trading when it became obvious there was a significant gap between forecast and actual sales and accepted the resignation of the cheif financial officer and managing director.

Murray Goulburn said the co-operative remains 100 per cent controlled by its dairy farmer supplier/shareholders.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-03/mg-responds-to-critics

 

[jade35]

Seems the has spreadhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-05/fonterra-cuts-milk-prices/7386374
They would not have done it if MG hadn't fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed first
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-...farmers-'owing'-hundreds-of-thousands/7386664

Retrospective price cuts

Fonterra - interview with Judith Swales of Fonterra Oceania
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-05/swales-fonterra-milk-cuts

 

[kiwi pom]

Seems the has spreadhttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-05/fonterra-cuts-milk-prices/7386374
They would not have done it if MG hadn't fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed first
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-...farmers-'owing'-hundreds-of-thousands/7386664

I was talking to a guy a few years ago that seemed to think very few dairy farmers actually had contracts with any of the processors. It was more a case of supplying whoever paid the most and it was common for them to ring up and say don't send the tanker tomorrow as i'm supplying someone else.
He could have been talking rubbish of course but if true could it be getting hard to find a buyer in a falling market?

 

[cows sh#t me to tears]

No. It's more a case of the other factories having to find a home for the extra volume if they take on extra suppliers. The company we supply fielded over 80 calls from MG suppliers last week. Some companies will offer a slightly higher price in exchange for a 3 year contract to tie suppliers up. This is more so to protect their own interests though as they don't want new suppliers coming over to get a higher price in year 1 and then leaving in year 2.
Parmalat was the only company to hold the price when this happened last time. They had contacts with all suppliers and honored the price.

 

[jade35]

Accident in Hinstock, Shropshire.
Hinstock warehouse collapse: Worker freed after more than nine hours under cheese and shelving

A worker has been freed after being buried alive under tons of shelving and cheese for more than nine hours.



The trapped man was applauded as he walked away after finally being freed from the warehouse
image: http://www.shropshirestar.com/wpmvc/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/freeclear1.jpg


Fire crews had to cut a hole in the side of the building to free the worker
image: http://www.shropshirestar.com/wpmvc/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Google-Earth.jpg


Edwards Transport in Hinstock on Google Earth
725SHARESMORE: Warehouse collapse sounded 'like a sonic boom'
Worker treated after finally being freed
Thirteen fire crews were called to the warehouse, which stocked 20kg blocks of cheese.

The fire service said the collapse started with racking inside the 60 metre by 20 metre structure. It is believed this set off a domino-like chain reaction.

Although the building itself has remained standing, the collapse left the walls of the structure bowing and fire crews had to cut their way into the warehouse to free the trapped worker.

He finally walked free at around 5pm.


Read more at http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/...-shropshire-warehouse-collapse/#jEPTBR4St2DGF

 

[jade35]

UK's first major cheese plant for 40 years opens near Pwllheli

• 16:00, 6 MAY 2016
• UPDATED 17:14, 6 MAY 2016
• BY ANDREW FORGRAVE

South Caernarfon Creameries aims to boost both cheese production and the range of products it offers.

The first batch of cheese on SCC's new production line at Chwilog
Wales’ oldest farmer-owned dairy co-operative has Britain's newest cheese plant.

South Caernarfon Creameries (SCC) last week began production at the new facility, the first to be built in the UK for 40 years.

The plant, at Chwilog, near Pwllheli , will boost cheese output from 9,500 tonnes to 12,000 tonnes each year.

As well as introducing greater efficiencies, safeguarding 100 jobs, the creamery will enable SCC to produce a greater variety of cheeses to customer specifications.

It is the Britain’s first large new-build cheese plant since the 1970s and goes against current trends in the UK dairy industry.

A report by agricultural consultants Promar International found that, in the past five years, the UK dairy sector had the lowest level of investment in processing facilities among the six largest exporting countries in the EU .
To read more see below
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/uks-first-major-cheese-plant-
http://www.dairyreporter.com/Manufa...n-Creameries-opens-new-cheese-production-unit

 

[jade35]

Older news

Wales drops plans to build new milk processing plant

• 18:14, 10 MAR 2016
• UPDATED 18:15, 10 MAR 2016
• BY ANDREW FORGRAVE

The Welsh Government will instead look to stimulate expansion of existing processing capacity following interest from dairy companies

Building a medium-sized processing plant is estimated to cost at least £80m
Ministers are to drop plans to build a new milk processing plant in south west Wales.

It follows a feasiblity study which suggests milk processors are keen to expand existing capacity – with a little funding help from the Welsh Government .

The report, drawn up by Brookdale Consulting, found there were already “impressive expansion plans” from existing processors to develop further capacity in the region.

In the short to medium term, this could see 350m litres of additional processing capacity added to the current infrastructure.

Such expansion could be stimulated by “modest” grant funding from government, said the report.

In turn this could potentially create 206 new jobs, £92m additional turnover and £65m in spin-off economic benefits.

In the longer term, Brookdale found that between 700m-1bn litres of capacity could be added – provided all the current plans of Welsh processors came to fruition.

Read: Llaeth Y Llan yogurt firm to double staff numbers with major expansion

However this would require “more substantial government support” and the prospects of achieving 1bn extra litres was unlikely, said the report.

If realised, however, it would create 776 jobs, £277m of turnover and £194m of wider benefits.

Deputy farming minister Rebecca Evans said the government’s Food Business Investment Scheme may be able to grant aid some expansion plans.

“It is pleasing to note that processors are expressing interest in the scheme,” she told AMs in a written statement today.

Processing capacity is limiting sector growth in Wales
Welsh milk production continues to increase, despite difficult market conditions, and looks set to hit 2bn litres by 2020.


According to Mrs Evans, south west Wales is well placed to become a “regional powerhouse” for dairy production.

Watch: Motörhead's Lemmy star as the Ace of Milk in posthumous TV advert

However its prospects for further growth are hindered not just by low prices but also by the country’s low processing capacity for Welsh milk.

Currently much of the milk produced in Wales is transported outside the country for processing.

Read: Welsh farmers push for Dairy Producer Organisations to be set up in Wales

Processors reject idea of building a new plant in south west Wales
The Welsh Government’s feasibility study set out to determine the potential for a new dairy processing facility in south west Wales.

It found there was little interest among processors for creating a new high volume plant or “smart” plant on a greenfield site.

Costs were cited as the main reason – a new, modest-sized, 300m litre plant would require an investment of at least £80m.

The region’s location - it is distant from large cities and retail distribution hubs - was another factor.

Read: Slate cavern cheese from South Caernarfon Creameries survives floods to win UK dairy product award

However processors indicated a “substantial interest” in growing processing capacity in south west Wales, paprticularly to service the export market.

Mrs Evans said this was encouraging.

“The processors, through their development plans, are expressing a strong vote of confidence in the dairy sector,” she said.

Need for innovation identified
Any expansion in processing that takes place is likely to focus on the commodities market, meaning that milk producers will continue to be exposed to global price shocks.

While the report admits there is “no quick or easy answer” to this situation, it notes that existing processors in the region have a strong track record for innovation.

Read: Aintree Holsteins race to victory in Denbigh and Flint dairy herds competition

As a result, Mrs Evans will ask Food Innovation Wales to work with dairy businesses to promote innovation into high value products.

“I believe that our goal of a sustainable dairy sector, at the heart of strong rural economic growth, is achievable" she added.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/wales-drops-plans-build-new-

http://www.my-money-back.co.uk/news/?source=taboola&utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral

 

[jade35]

Arla in the news
http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Manufacturing/Arla-Foods-in-legal-challenge-from-union/

 

[jade35]

And China has given a one year grace period on new online buying regulations for dairy products etc.
http://www.dairyreporter.com/Regula...on-new-Chinese-rules-in-spite-of-grace-period