Collection |
VFM (unaccessioned) General |
Description |
Six separators used to separate cream from milk during milking. "Crown" - image 1. Diablo No. 112 - image 2. Alfa-Laval Colibri - image 3. Alfa-Laval Daisy - image 4. Alfa-Laval N.2. - image 5. Domo N213 200 Lit. - image 6.
From the internet 1 December 2008: The on-farm separator The first cream separator was invented in 1877 by the Swedish engineer Gustaf de Laval. It enabled farmers to separate their own milk and sell the cream to dairy factories, rather than taking milk to a skimming station to be separated. The major advantage was that only about 10% of the volume of milk had to be transported to the factory.
However, the change from skimming stations to on-farm separation was slow. As road transport improved, cream could be collected more regularly, and more milk was separated on farms. By 1918, 24,700 farms (71%) supplied cream to dairy factories. In the 1930s and 1940s a cream truck called at each farm every one or two days to collect cream cans and return empty ones. Cream cans were a fixture until 1951, when factories once again required whole milk, and the first large tanker collections began.
Milk fat and protein When farmers separated the milk and sent cream to the local dairy factory, they were paid for the fat content, as this was the main ingredient in butter. However, it was later realised that the skim milk they were feeding to their pigs was high in protein. Today, skim milk is processed into a range of products and is more valuable to the farmer than milk fat.
Milking by hand Owning more than three or four cows turned farming families into full-time dairy workers. It was time-consuming to care for cows and calves, do the milking, separate out the cream and drive it to the factory. The laborious business of hand milking created the demand for mechanical help.
The first machines The first milking machines were built in Europe in the 1890s, and a Scottish model was trialled in Mangere, South Auckland, in 1893. Vacuum and pulsation was applied through four teat cups (called a cluster) attached to the cow’s udder. The milk was collected in buckets and emptied into vats. Later, these systems were connected up by small engines and electricity to a central machine. Milk flowed along pipes to a vat that delivered milk to the cream separator. When whole milk began to be collected, the milk was cooled in a heat exchanger then poured into cooling vats.
Once initial problems cleaning these machines had been overcome, they proved much more efficient than hand milking. They kept the milk enclosed and safe from contamination. Mechanical milking was the main reason for the increase in cow numbers and herd sizes from the beginning of the 20th century.
Hugh Stringleman and Frank Scrimgeour. 'Dairying and dairy products', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 20-Nov-2008. URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/TheSettledLandscape/AnimalFarming/DairyingAndDairyProducts/en
© Crown Copyright 2005 - 2008 | Disclaimer | ISBN 978-0-478-18451-8 Ministry for Culture and Heritage / Te Manatu Taonga |
Object ID |
VFM0.800.0127 |
Object Name |
Separator, Cream |
Other # |
VFM818 |
|