The Process of Milk Production

1
The Process of Milk Production
2
Grazing

• Dairy cows eat grass
• Cows have four
• stomachs.

3
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• Cows start producing milk when they are 2 years
  of age
• For every 1 litre of milk they produce, they need
  to consume 2 litres of water.

4
Milking
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• Milk is created inside the udders of dairy cows
  on the farm.
• Milking lines are attached to the four teats of a
  dairy cow using suction cups. These lines are
  attached to milking machines which use pumps to
  gently suck milk from the cow.
• Cows are milked twice a day, once in the morning
  and once in the
• evening.
• Milk that comes out of a cow is warm, like our
  own body temperature, at 37 degrees Celsius.

5
Farm Storage
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• The milk travels through the milking lines to
  stainless steel pipes. The pipes lead to
  refrigerated storage tanks (vats) which quickly
  cool the milk down to 4 degrees Celsius.

6
Transporting
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• The trucks used have large stainless steel
  refrigerated tanks, which keep the milk clean and
  refrigerated at 4 degrees Celsius during
  transportation.
• The tanks can hold up to 20,000 litres of milk
• Trucks can tow between 1 to 2 milk tanks.

7
Quality Testing and Processing
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• The milk is tested to make sure it is fresh and
  can not be more than a day old (24 hours)
• When the milk arrives at the plant it is white in
  colour
• Pasteurisation
• The process of heating the milk to 72 degrees
• Celsius
• Pasteurisation kills harmful germs which make
• milk "go off
• Homogenisation
• 
  Homogenisation is breaking large
  cream
• 
  droplets up into smaller ones under
  very
• 
  high pressure. It gives the milk an
  even,
• 
  creamy texture.

8
Filling and Packing
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• The milk is sent through a processing line to be
  packaged in cartons or bottles. These recyclable
  containers are stamped with the use-by date.
• On average a processing
• line can makes between
• 90-180 bottles of milk
• per minute.
• After the milk has been bottled it is put
  into crates ready for transport.
• They confirm that the bottles have the right
  amount of milk in them by weighing them

9
Delivery
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• The dairy foods are stored in huge
• cool-rooms while waiting to be
• transported to shops and supermarkets.
• Bottled milk usually lasts for 13 days