Modern Dairy Farming Enhanced by Today's Refrigeration Technology

Refrigeration is fundamental in processing healthy, first-rate dairy products. Guaranteeing the stability of refrigeration equipment is essential since the failure of any part of the system risks disastrous results. Strict tolerances for proper refrigeration are required through every step of processing. Milk requires immediate cooling before and after pasteurization to minimize the risk of bacteria growth. Complete temperature control is necessary to ensure products are safe to consume, preserve quality and composition, and extend shelf life.

Today's technology enhances modern dairy farming and gives farmers complete control over their operations with better efficiency. Oxford's fully modulating condensing unit with digital monitoring provides a flexible, integrated platform that regulates equipment performance. Electronic regulation enables precision control of every device in the system.

Complete system governance is established with Oxford's Building Automation System – BAS (SensoriTM/E2). It gives processors access, control, and monitoring capabilities to see how their equipment performs during processing and storage. With the combination of intelligent controls, electronic components, and digital management, Oxford's automated control provides stringent temperature regulation and comprehensive real-time data. Through an HMI, they can visualize and manage the temperatures of raw milk as it enters the pasteurization process, cools, and is stored. They can intervene and adjust the system locally and remotely to prevent issues. The ability to follow the product through every stage and verify the optimal operation of the system provides confidence that milk has maintained safe temperatures and the best possible characteristics.

The Efficiency of Plate Heat Exchangers in Pasteurization

High Temperature – Short-Time (HTST) processing is the industry-standard choice for more extensive facilities. However, for small-batch dairy processors, vat pasteurization is a suitable and gentler way to refine milk that maintains healthy bacteria and product characteristics. While being a slower process, using lower temperatures preserves the high quality that on-farm processors aim to market. As dairies expand production to include additional products, the time it takes to pasteurize and cool milk affects productivity. However, increasing the temperature during pasteurization to speed up the process can risk the composition and flavour of the product.

Unlike cheese, where pasteurized milk is cooled to approximately 32-34°C before processing begins, fluid milk requires much lower temperatures. Oxford's combination of a chiller and secondary plate heat exchanger plays an essential role in delivering efficiency in batch processing fluid milk. It is one of the most effective methods of quickly managing product temperatures and reducing the energy costs of cooling/heating for dairy processors. Pre- cooling or preheating milk decreases the time it takes to achieve optimal temperatures for pasteurization and storage. It reduces the risk of unwanted microbial growth and the energy required to reach proper temperatures.

As milk passes alongside one plate, pumped fluid (i.e., water/glycol) moves along the alternate side of the heat exchanger's compressed stainless-steel plates. The cold fluid absorbs heat from the warmer milk as the liquids pass across the separating plate (which acts as a conductor). Likewise, milk temperature can be increased similarly by passing hot fluid past the steel plates. The cooler milk absorbs heat before pasteurization, reaching ideal temperatures in a fraction of the time typically required.

Processors can use a Regen Plate system with the heat exchanger to take advantage of additional time and energy benefits. In this sequence, the returning pasteurized milk passes through as cold raw milk flows inversely to be processed. The heat exchange quickly gets the product closer to he required temps, leveraging the 'free' cooling/heating. The energy and time needed for the processing are drastically reduced, resulting in a 60% reduction in the energy required to process the product. The heat exchange sequence allows batch processors to have a premium product and accomplish it at the same efficiency levels as those with HTST pasteurization.

Stewards of the Land

As stewards of the land, farmers are acutely aware of the impact of their products and processing on the community, environment, and businesses. Processes must be sustainable and profitable simultaneously. Protecting resources and reducing an environmental footprint benefit their long-term business continuity. On-farm dairies have several opportunities to achieve production efficiency and define sustainability goals by managing energy and water consumption and directing their supply chain.

Food production is energy and water intensive. Equipment sanitation is a continuous process throughout the day. Often there is significant water and power waste, leaving high costs and environmental impacts. It is essential to manage CIP (cleaning-in-place) systems well. Oxford's integrated management maximizes the efficiency of multiple steps within the process, allowing all devices in the system to be washed in one loop. It reduces CIP schedules, saving processors resource input, time, and money. Precise control maximizes efficient water and energy use as part of the internal production process.

On-site dairy processing allows farmers to be decision-makers and control the process rather than having their milk travel out of the county to a different processor. Dairies govern their supply chain every step of the way – from what they produce to how they are packaged and distributed. By reimagining the family farming business, they cultivate a sustainable path that positively impacts the community, environment, and profitability. For modern dairy farmers, combining diversification strategies with technology can provide unique opportunities to expand the market and sustain businesses for the long term.