Dairy

On-farm milk processing – a way to ‘control your own destiny’

That’s how one Creemore-area farmer sees his decision to process his own milk. But marketing skills and a sales plan are also essential

by SUSAN MANN

When two Ontario farming families decided to establish on-farm milk processing plants, they didn’t expect that finding the right-sized equipment would prove a major challenge.

For their Sheldon Creek Dairy, located in Loretto near Alliston, John and Bonnie den Haan and family had their equipment built. Their equipment was made by a neighbour who works for a company in Mississauga that builds pasteurizers and other equipment, John den Haan says. The person who did their excavating suggested they talk to the neighbour.

The small pasteurizer that resulted can do 1,500 litres an hour.

DFO puts milk transportation under the microscope

In an effort to determine what the milk transportation should be like 20 years from now, Dairy Farmers of Ontario is looking at everything from laneways to loading areas, milk house design to electrical and water supply

by SUSAN MANN

Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) has started a massive review of how it moves raw milk from farms to processing plants that will see standards being developed for everything from milk house design to wireless communications for trucks.