Ray-Lin Dairy

Is my milk safe?

raylindairy — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:48:00 +0000

Cleanliness and safety is something that we think about before we even think about milking the cows. Cleanliness starts with the cow beds andalso by keeping our cows healthy . We wash our milk pipelines three times a day once between every milking shift, the milk tank is washed once a day after it has been emptied and the milk pumped out and onto the tanker truck. Food safety is something paid close attention to on a dairy farm here are few pictures showing what we do to produce healthy refreshing milk!

This tank cools the milk and stores it at a chilly 39 degrees. This is a brand new 5000 gallon milk tank we installed a few months ago.

Inside these stainless steel tubes the milk is filtered before ending up in the milk tank. Fresh new filters are installed before each milking shift.

This is a plate cooler that uses water to help cool the milk by nearly 20 degrees before the milk enters the milk tank.

This chart tracks the temperature of the milk and is changed every 48 hours. If you notice the two spikes in temperature they are when the tank is washed daily after the milk is pumped into the milk truck to be taken to the milk plant.

This sink is where the cleaning agents are m ixed with water to wash the pipelines the milk flows through. It is like a big dishwasher for pipes and is used after each milking shift.

the cows teats are dipped with an 1% iodine and lanolin solution to keep them soft and clean.

Although hard to see because it is a clear gold color this is a peroxide based teat sanitizer we use before the cow is milked. It also has lanolin in it to keep the teats soft..

The cleaning agents are automatically added to the wash sink for employee safety.

We even take safety as far as protecting our water supply from being contaminated with cleaning agents or milk.

The milking machines are washed in between every milking shift

National Cheese Lover’s Day

raylindairy — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:53:27 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Hey Cheese Lover’s today is your day so vote for up to 3 of your favorite cheeses below. Feel free to add any not here.

Take Our Poll

celebrating National Cheese Lover’s Day on January 20 (foodtruckadventure.com)
Artisanal Cheese Honors “National Cheese Day” With a Facebook Comment Contest to Win Affineur Collection!!! (marcellathecheesemonger.com)
Cheese lovers. (fitfabflawless.wordpress.com)
Top 4 Cheese Trends to Enjoy on January 20 – National Cheese Lover’s Day! (foodtruckadventure.com)

Not Red Dawn, Red Dusk

raylindairy — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:46:03 +0000

Beautiful red sunset here in CA's central valley last night

Today’s thought: Lifting the human spirit…

raylindairy — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:32:07 +0000

There’s nothing that lifts the human spirit more than making one feel like they matter for who they are…

…today I felt like I mattered when a simple blog post with a silly title was as popular as it was.

Thank you!

Cow Bling!

raylindairy — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:16:11 +0000

New calves showing off their bling!

On our farm we use eartags to give each animal an unique identifier that allows us to keep important health records for each animal. Here are a few pictures that show the tags up close.

This is used to apply the tags similar to how ears are pierced for earrings

The tags are applied in a similar fashion to earrings through a soft portion of the ear. Each tag is self contained and is clean and sterile.

Each tag has 2 parts this is the male part

Cow bling has a lot of information about the animal

The information of the tags includes our farm brand (starting at the very top of the biggest tag), next is the unique “840″ number assigned to only this animal in the United States, followed by the unique number for our farm, in this case 2129. The small white tag has the same numbers and also id an EID tag that contains an RFID information. We currently do not utilize the RFID tag outside of visual use however are we will be implementing the electronic reading in the future to help with efficiency and to eliminate human error.

Curious about the camera, and showing the bling!

Peek a Boo Sun

raylindairy — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:03:02 +0000

Beautiful sunrise and one reason we enjoy working with the cows because we can witness natures grandeur first hand.

Awesome sunrise taken from one of our barns.

Nuggets of brilliance come unexpectedly…

raylindairy — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:39:07 +0000

Today’s thought: A mind is just like a book, when they are open learning happens, when closed they’re nearly useless. So let’s remember that in all we do to keep open minds because we may learn something because brilliant nuggets often show up when least expected.

Fog makers?

raylindairy — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:44:00 +0000

It is hard to see but on cold mornings the cows breath is just like the fog machines that fill dance floors with fog.

If the milk price goes south maybe I can rent them out as fog makers.

Today’s thought: We’re all human…

raylindairy — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:20:47 +0000

No matter the opinion we’re all human,
so let’s treat each other as humans.

Just a farmer… Just a person…

raylindairy — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:09:52 +0000

Today’s thought: Farmers are people too, we enjoy many of the same hobbies as other’s who walk this great earth. We farmers might be small in numbers however mighty in what we provide as nourishment to this world. Yes farmers are humans first and we are emotionally connected to being the best caretaker’s we can be for our great resources in this world.

Young Farmers & Ranchers-Why We’re Here (farmbureau.wordpress.com)
Join the Conversation About the Food You Produce (farmbureau.wordpress.com)