Cutting the temperature of fresh milk by a few degrees could save the dairy industry colossal amounts of money, says engineering firm John Brooks.
Harvested milk is sucked from cows into a holding tank, called a can, then pumped to a refrigerated vat via a heat exchanger.
Technical services manager
Maurice Coates said the firm's new software-based pump controller could beat the temperature reduction from conventional units by 3.5C.
"If you multiply it out over tens of thousands of litres of milk that 3.5 degrees represents a colossal amount of energy saving," Coates said.
"Some of these big farms that milk for 12 hours or more a day would literally save thousands of dollars over the course of a year."
The product would sell for between about $3650 and $3900, the same price as the company's more conventional product.
Traditional milk pump controllers tried to keep the level of milk in the can constant, whereas John Brooks' new controller tried to keep the flow of milk through the heat exchanger constant, Coates said.
"What we have said is, 'Well, it doesn't really matter where the level of milk gets to in the can, as long as the can doesn't overflow.'
"The most important thing in this process is to keep the flow of milk through the heat exchanger as low and as slow as possible so that the heat exchanger has the maximum opportunity to get as much heat out of the milk as possible before it's delivered to the refrigerated vat."
The company's Dairy-Flo controller used algorithms and adaptive-type software to control the milk flow and learn the characteristics of the plant as it was running, Coates said.
"This is a set and forget thing," he said. "You just turn it on and forget about it and it does what it has to do."
Farmers could also be penalised if the bacteria count was too high in the refrigerated vat, he said, but delivering milk at a lower temperature meant the bacteria did not breed as well.
