How to make creamery butter on the farm

Front matter

How to Make

Creamery Butter

on the Farm

Table of Contents

Why It Pays to Make Your Cream

Into Butter on the Farm 9

The Essential Things in Making

Preface

IT HAS taken a long time for some branches of human activity to come under the regenerating influence of science. But once she takes hold of a proposition, science works rapidly — and the cruder and more primitive the subject she studies, the more rapidly she works and the more wonderful are the improvements she makes.

It is remarkable indeed, and regrettable, that so vital a human activity as farming, an industry upon which the very existence of the human race depends, should have been so long in coming out of the darkness of primitive ideas and ideals and coming into the light of modern science. It was only within the last half century that a real beginning was made in the science of agriculture — and the real progress in better farming methods has been made in the last quarter century.

Buttermaking, logically a farm activity, began to benefit by the application of scientific principles only within the last twenty years or so. You need only compare the efficiency and rapidity of the buttermaking equipment in the modern creamery to the slow and laborious old fashioned farm churn to realize what science has done in the art of buttermaking. A comparison of the quality of butter produced by the two methods also makes a strong case for the modern way of making butter.

But the farmer has not profited as he should by the wonderful improvements in the method of buttermaking. The rapid development of scientific principles in this industry has been limited to a type of machine too large and too expensive for the individual farm use. The farmer was left with an inefficient barrel churn that gave him but little chance to apply scientific principles and processes to buttermaking even if he was familiar with them.

True, the perfection of these large, efficient buttermaking outfits has made possible the establishment of centralizers and creameries to which farmers can send their cream to be made into butter and share in the proceeds. But the big expenses of running such large butter factories have to be paid out of the proceeds from the sale of the butter, whether the plant is a private enterprise or a co-operative one. We have managed such creameries and we know how much it costs to run one. We know that this cost takes a big chunk out of the income the farmer should get from his dairy herd, and could get if he could buy a scientific buttermaking machine suitable to his needs and to his pocketbook and could acquire the knowledge of the methods that would enable him to make butter of the highest quality in that machine.

The Minnetonna Company has solved the first problem — they have furnished the machine. We have attempted to supply, in this book, the second requisite — the ''know how." We have endeavored to put into plain, practical, easy-to-follow directions, the essential scientific buttermaking knowledge that we have acquired in our quarter-century experience as buttermakers and dairy experts.

If this book helps any of the farmers who receive it to increase their net cash income from their cows by enabling them to make their cream into high-grade butter at home, or shows farmers who are already making butter how to make better and more profitable butter, with less labor, or encourages farmers who have overlooked or ignored the money-making possibilities of a dairy department on their farms, to open up an entirely new source of income, we shall feel amply repaid for the time and labor spent in preparing this volume.

We shall also be glad to have any reader ask us for further explanation of any part that is not perfectly clear, or to ask us for help in solving any buttermak-

The McLaughlins— Buttermakers

MR. McLaughlin was bom and raised on a farm. Early in life he took an interest in dairying. He studied breeding and feeding and their relation to milk and butterfat production. His interest in these subjects soon led to an interest in buttermaking and cheesemaking because it soon becomes evident to the farmer who gives any thought and study to his business that the most profit can be made from his cows by selling their milk as a finished product — butter or cheese — instead of in the raw state — milk or cream.

Mr. McLaughlin has been engaged in the manufacture of butter, cheese and condensed milk for over 25 years. He originated the first exhaust pasteurizer heater, and also the first salt test used in Minnesota.

Mrs. McLaughlin took a keen interest in Mr. Mc- Laughlin's work from the very day of her marriage ; in fact, being a country girl, she had been making butter for some time on her father's farm and liked the work. For over fourteen years she has been as active as Mr. McLaughlin in the buttermaking business. For many years Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin were joint managers of the Elgin Co-operative Creamery at Elgin, Minn. They have both attended the Dairy School at the University of Minnesota and are in great demand as speakers at buttermakers' conventions, Farmers' clubs, etc.

It has always been Mrs. McLaughlin's contention that better butter could be made in the home dairy

The McLaughlins — Buttermakers than in a big creamery. She has proven this time and time again and gives the reason why this is so in the chapter "Why it pays to Make Cream into Butter on the Farm."

Prizes and High Scores Made by

Mr. and Mrs. W. J. McLaughlin.

SCORE First — Minnesota Dairyman and Livestock Association,

Northfield, Minn., Jan. 21, 1912 95

Second — Minnesota State Fair, Hamline, Minn., Sept.,

1912 95

Third — North Iowa Fair, Mason City, Iowa, Sept. 18,

1912 96.50

First — Six months' Scoring Contests, St. Paul, Minn.,

Second — Interstate Scoring Contests, Mason City, Iowa,

First — Minnesota Buttermakers' Annual Convention,

First — Wisconsin State Fair, Milwaukee, Wis. (Over all

National Creamery Buttermakers' Association, Chicago,

National Buttermakers' Association, Chicago, Oct. 29,

1912 95.16

International Dairy Show, Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 30,

1911 94.86

International Dairy Show, Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 30,

1912 96

National, International, Interstate and State Contests

(The highest over any buttermaker in the United States

making butter from hand separated cream.)

Third— Interstate Fair, Oct., 1912 96.50

North Iowa Fair, 1911 94.50

North Iowa Fair, 1911 94.33

Minnesota Butter and Cheesemakers' Association 93

Minnesota Butter and Cheesemakers' Association 9375

Iowa Fair, Mason City, Iowa, 1912 95

International Dairy Show 1912 93.66

National Dairy Show 94.50

First— Second District at State Fair, 1912 95

Second— Wadena 93.50

The Publishers

CHAPTER I. Why it Pays to Make Your Cream Into Butter on the Farm

THERE are at least three different sources of extra profit opened up to you when you make your cream into butter at home by the Minnetonna method.

1. The difference between butter-fat in cream prices and high-grade butter prices; the "over-run" alone in butter-making makes this difference at least 25%, as explained in Chapter XH.

2. The buttermilk that you are enabled to keep is worth many dollars to you as a feed for hogs, if you do not sell it.

3. The saving in the expense of hauling your milk or cream to the station or creamery. Many farmers have figured that this hauling costs them $1.00 to $2.00 a day.

The "Over-run."

The "over-run" in butter-making is fully explained in Chapter XH. Good butter should contain 20% of ingredients other than pure butter-fat, such as moisture, salt, etc. These items are necessary to the flavor and keeping quality of the butter, but they cost you practically nothing. Yet you get butter prices for them. Eighty pounds of butter-fat makes 100 pounds of butter. Sell your cream and you get paid only for 80 pounds. Make good butter and sell it and get paid for 100 pounds, or 25% more, besides getting more per pound.

The Buttermilk.

The extra money that you can pocket for your buttermilk will amount to a snug little sum in the course of a 3^ear. Several of our friends have written us that they can easily sell their buttermilk at 3c to 4c a quart, sometimes more. This fact at least proves the value of the buttermilk that you are throwing away when you sell your cream. Even if you do not sell it as buttermilk, you can sell it for even more as hog meat. We need not discuss the merits of buttermilk as a feed for hogs — they are self-evident.

You Save the Cost of Hauling Cream.

Perhaps you don't realize how large an item is the expense of hauling the cream to the creamery or shipping station. You know that your time and labor are worth money — so much per hour. The time that you or your help spend on unnecessary things means just so much lost money. It is not necessary to make nearly so many trips to town when you are manufacturing butter at home and shipping the finished product instead of the raw material. If you will figure up the cost of each trip to town with your wagon, we believe that you'll find, as many other farmers have, that it is somewhere between $1.00 and $2.00 per trip — maybe more if your farm is far out. If you are making and shipping butter you need make only one-half to one-fourth as many trips as you do with milk or cream. It is easy to calculate your savings in hauling

Why It Pays to Make Butter on the Farm 11

expenses for a year, and we dare say that the figure will open your eyes.

You Pocket Middleman's Profit.

You know that there is really something to this idea about selling direct from the producer to the consumer, cutting out the middleman's rake off. In a great many lines it has meant a great deal to both the producer and the consumer — in the farming business perhaps more than any other. Why not carry the idea to the dairy end of your business, make your butter at home and ship direct to the consumer or retail distributer and get a price that includes the cost of manufacturing in the creamery or centralizer, the commission man's profit, the wholesaler's profit, and something of the carrying profit by railroad or express? Add up these various profits and you have a pretty neat sum, often from 5c to 10c on each pound.

You Pocket Creamery Manufacturing Costs.

The manufacturing costs in a big creamery, whether it is a co-operative creamery or a centralizer, is another very important consideration. Take the co-operative creamery for instance. You get more money for your cream in that enterprise than you do from the city centralizers or commission men. But look at what it costs to run the creamery — the salary of a buttermaker, the interest and depreciation on an investment of about $5,000 worth of building and machinery, a high rate of insurance, power and upkeep, etc. Out of your cream check has to come your proportion of the sum total of these expenses.

Get Premixim Prices for Butter.

Now there is still another very interesting feature about this home buttermaking business. The minute you start making your cream into good clean butter right on your farm, you at once enjoy a big competing advantage over the big creamery or centralizer. That advantage of yours comes from this fact :

All sorts of cream goes to the creamery or centralizer, some good, some not so good, some not even clean. It all goes into one vat. The poor cream pulls down the quality of the whole batch and the butter turned out is not as good as it might be. Yet every farmer is paid the same price for the butterfat content of his cream. If you have pure, clean, sweet cream, you get no more for it than the fellow whose cream is not so good.

But look here. With that pure, sweet cream of yours you can easily make the highest grade butter at home by the Minnetonna method. For such butter you can get the top market prices and even more. Many Minnetonna Home creamery owners write that they get from 2c to 10c a pound more than regular market prices for their butter.

GcM)d "Dairy Butter" Preferred.

As a matter of fact, many folks prefer "dairy" or home creamery butter, when it is made right and under sanitary conditions. We make this statement only after thorough investigation. You may happen to know some people who shake their heads when you mention dairy butter, but that's because they've had experience with the wrong kind. If you were making Minnetonna Home Creamery butter by our practical

Why It Pays to Make Butter on the Farm 13

methods, you would only have to let them sample it to change their notions. TheyM be pleasantly surprised.

Another thing we discovered in our investigation — one of the reasons why good dairy butter brings higher prices : Quite a number of women have the idea that "dairy" or home creamery butter lasts longer — goes further on the table, especially when it is put up in jars.

Big Market for Quality Butter.

There is always good market for highest quality butter, the kind made by the Minnetonna method. Most of our customers soon find that they can sell more than they can make in their own neighborhood or at the stores in nearby towns. Besides, there are markets in all good sized towns and cities, many of which are easily reached from your place by parcel post or express. You can get in touch with the consumers through the post office, express companies or small ads inserted in city newspapers. We will help you in finding buyers for your butter so you need not worry on that score. There is so little of the real Al butter to be had that it quickly finds a market at the highest market quotations or better.

Why the Old Time Farm Chum Fails.

A letter from the Potter Casey Co., of Aitkin, Minn., after telling how a farmer increased his net cash income 30% by making his cream into butter by the Minnetonna method reads as follows:

"Yes" some one says, "before the creamery came in we used to make butter and it was always hard to sell. The stores didn't care whether they took it or not and they would never pay what it was worth."

"The same kind of butter still comes to the store. Over-salted, underworked, worked too much, oily — people won't buy it to eat, so we pack it in tubs and send it to the renovating factory."

Making good butter with an ordinary churn is a fine art known to only a few people, and they get the top price for all they can make. The market for good butter is as steady as the market for cream.

With the Minnetonna Home Creamery and Minnetonna Methods, anyone can make creamery butter, and save that 30% which he is losing now.

CHAPTER II. The Essential Things in Making Good Butter

THE making of high-grade butter — the kind of butter that gets premium prices — begins at the cow, the source of the raw material from which the butter is manufactured.

The way a cow is fed and cared for makes a very noticeable and important effect upon the flavor of her milk, as well as upon its quantity and richness in butterfat. The flavor of butter depends upon the flavor of cream from w^hich it is made. Flavor is the most important item in judging butter, and determines more than anything else how much you get for your product.

In Chapter XVI you will find some very interesting and very valuable information about the care and feeding of cows. Don't fail to read that chapter.

The next step in good buttermaking is the handling of the milk and the cream after it is separated. Many things can happen to the milk from the time it leaves the cows until it is made into butter, that greatly affect its flavor, cleanliness or quality. In Chapter III are given some pointers on the selection and care of milk or cream intended for buttermaking.

Separating the cream from the milk and the operation of separators have a relation to scientific buttermaking that warrants a chapter on these subjects. You may discover in Chapter IV some facts about separating that you do not know or may have overlooked or forgotten.

It's a good thing to know the percentage of butterfat in your milk or cream. Such knowledge will give you a basis for figuring the comparative value of the different feeds and rations you give your cows, showing which produce the richest milk. You will also be able to ascertain, how much, if any, butterfat you are losing in the churning, and why. The Babcock test, the recognized standard test for finding the per cent of butterfat in cream or milk, is fully explained in Chapter V.

Almost as important as the improved processes of churning and working butter are the modern scientific methods of preparing the cream for the churning — "ripening" or souring, "starting," getting the right degree of acidity, finding the best temperature at which to churn, etc. These things determine how much or how little butterfat you lose in the churning and to some considerable extent influence the grain and flavor of the butter. The most successful scientific methods of "ripening," testing, "starting," etc., are fully and clearly described in Chapters VII, VIII and IX.

Butter color has much to do with butter prices. It is dealt with in Chapter X.

In the churning process of buttermaking there is also another chance to lose a large chunk of your butterfat — and your profit — if you use old time, unscientific, laborious methods. Science has shown how to prevent this loss, as well as how to do away with most

No. jA Minnetonna Home Ci'eamery; hand and power. Churning capacity^ with barrel half full, 12 gallons. Working capacity, j to 20 pounds. Can be belted to your gasoline engine or electric motor. Pulley, 8x2)4^ inches. Speed, 200 R. P. M. Floor space required, 2 ft., 8 in. x 2 ft., 7 in. Shipping weight, 210 pounds. Anchor Bolts, 2Q}4 in. wide X 20}4 in. long; ^ in. bolt used. Power required, ]4^ H. P. electric motor; i H. P. gas engine.

Above illustration shows the jA Minnetonna Home Creamery with Electric Direct Connected Attachment, which includes motor and all necessary attachments. The larger 2C Minnetonna can also be had with this electric equipment.

The Essential Things in Making Good Butter 17

of the drudgery and waste of time connected with buttermaking as our mothers and grandmothers did it. The new way in buttermaking is interestingly dealt with in Chapter XI.

The last few operations in good buttermaking — washing, working, incorporating moisture and salt, are by no means so unimportant that they deserve anything less than the most careful attention. A "slip-up" here may spoil the otherwise fine batch of butter. Don't skim over Chapter XII. Study it carefully.

Some valuable pointers on putting your butter up in the most marketable forms are also given in Chapter XII.

In concluding this work we could hardly find a more appropriate subject than a principle that is recognized and given careful consideration in all well-managed and successful manufacturing enterprises — the care of the tools or machinery with which we work. Any kind of machinery, no matter how good it is, how correct in working principle, how carefully and strongly built, requires some care if you expect to get the best results from its operation and long reliable service. Chapter XIV is worth reading.

CHAPTER III. The Handling of the Milk and Cream

To FULLY appreciate the importance of great care in handling the milk from the time it leaves the cow until it is put in the churn, and to understand why many of the buttermaker's troubles are traceable to things that happen to the milk or cream, it is first necessary to understand how butter is graded, what determines the price you get for it.

With the butter trade — that is, butter buyers, wholesalers and retailers — butter is graded as follows :

"Specials," the very best; "Extras," "Firsts" and "Seconds" in the order named. There is a wide variation in the prices between "Specials" and "Seconds." There is always a good market for "specials" whereas the lower grades are a drug on the market most of the time.

In judging butter, especially in prize competitions, the following division of points is made :

Flavor 45 Clean, distinctively sweet, nutty and

full of character — fresh, pleasing aroma.

Body 25 Waxy, a grain that is firm, smooth,

close and glossy and breaks like a piece of cold steel.

Salt 10 Medium, well dissolved, quite briny,

sharp salt for Western markets, light salt for Eastern markets, very light

The Handling of the Milk and Cream 19

for high score in contests; judges look for fine aroma, and salt kills this when too much is added.

Color 15 Even, free from mottles or streaks,

neither too high nor too low.

Package .... 5 Neat, clean, full, well put up.

The flavor is given nearly one-half the total score, indicating it is the most important factor in determining the market value of the butter. Perfect flavor is difficult to describe, but well known to the majority of butter consumers.

The grain and color of the butter are governed mostly by the churning and working processes, and will be considered in the chapters on those subjects.

Aroma and Flavor in Butter.

Aroma in butter is the quality that is detected by smell only. Flavor in butter is determined only by taste. Flavor should be remembered as the quality of the butter. Aroma is, in itself, not always an accurate indication of quality or flavor, but it reveals characteristics due to bacterial fermentations and chemical changes, as caused from over-ripe milk or cream, holding cream too long at ripening temperatures, unclean utensils or contamination of the cream used.

The flavor reveals all defects in the cream from which the butter is made, such as aged cream, unclean utensils, high acid, (too sour), the mixing of cold cream and warm cream together (causing a fishy flavor) .

You can readily see then, how important to success in buttermaking is the proper care and handling of the milk or cream from which the butter is made. No less important is —

The Feeding and Care of the Cows.

The flavor from certain feeds, such as turnips, beets, etc., can be eliminated if the cows are fed right after milking time. This is a fact generally understood by farmers and dairymen. Rancid flavor from feeding rape can only be overcome by discontinuing such feed. Rape is so strong and pronounced in flavor that it is impossible to make good butter when it is used as feed for your milk cows.

Silage Flavor. — A very common trouble, especially in the winter months when cows are fed large quantities of silage in poorly ventilated barns. It is caused not by the silage as a feed but by letting the milk or the cream stand in barns until it takes this taint. It is impossible to feed silage through a cow's system to produce this defect in milk and cream. If the milk and cream is taken from the barn immediately when drawn from the cows there will be no trouble from this source.

The feeding, breeding and care of cows is considered at length in Chapter XVI, especially in reference to quantity of milk produced and its butterfat content. Cleanliness is the most important thing to remember in the care of cows. It has a direct effect on the flavor of the butter produced from their milk. Sanitation is the first law of good buttermaking. It is absolutely necessary to success in the buttermaking business.

The Handling of the Milk mid Cream 21

The chief cause of undesirable flavors in butter is the exposure of the milk to strong odors and dirt and the failure to keep cream cool and sweet until it is ripened for buttermaking.

One of the best means of insuring the true butter flavor is proper care of the stable.

The proper and regular cleaning of the cows is extremely important.

On some farms the cream separator never leaves the barn from one year's end to the other. You know the stable was never built which did not have a smell in it. Just remember that milk will absorb odors quicker than anything else. If milk is left standing in the barn or is separated in the barn it is going to taste "cowy.'' If the milk tastes bad the butter will taste bad also. Do your separating in the milk house.

If this is not convenient some cans can be set outside the barn door to empty the milk into. But keep them covered. If possible send pail and all to the separator just as soon as you get through milking.

Barn Taint. — This is caused by keeping cows in crowded, unsanitary, poorly ventilated and poorly lighted stables, or by leaving milk and cream in barns, or by leaving hand separators in barn or allowing dust to drop in milk when milking. When milk is cooling in a place where odors exist and the temperature of the milk cools below the temperature of the air, the oxygen of the air enters into the milk and cream, carrying odors that are in the air. This is one of the main causes of barn flavor.

Metallic Flavor is caused by keeping milk or cream in old rusty cans, ripening cream in vats not properly tinned, using poorly tinned starter cans or using anything where the milk comes in contact with metal when sour. Ripening cream to .8% acid also causes metallic flavor.

High grade, wholesome butter must be made out of clean, sweet cream or milk. There is no process that will purify or improve cream that has become contaminated or improperly ripened. It's all a question of a little care and attention to details in the handling of your milk and cream.

CHAPTER IV. Separating the Cream

SEPARATE your milk just as soon after milking as possible. Separating should be done while the milk is warm if you want to get all the butterfat possible. Most separators work most efficiently when the temperature of the milk is about 85 to 95 degrees F., which is a few degrees below the body temperature of the cow. When the milk is separated at a temperatiux lower than 85 degrees, it flows more slowly, thus permitting much butterfat to be lost in the skim-milk.

Milk from fresh milch cows separates very easily. Milk from old milch cows and from cows milked during a late period of lactation is harder to separate. The temperature should be higher — from 90 to 95 degrees F., and the machine should be turned up to full speed to insure good separation.

Before separating, the milk should be strained through a reliable wire strainer, so that if any hairs or dirt have gotten into it they will not get into the separator. (We recommend the Ekvall Sanitary Milk Strainer. It is the most efficient strainer we have ever seen. You can buy it from the Minnetonna Co.)

The Operation of the Separator has considerable to do with success in buttermaking. It also has a lot to do with the losses of butter fat which have cost dairymen hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. It is desirable to work with cream that always has 25 per cent to 30 per cent butterfat, as it churns easier and faster. The variations in the percentage of butterfat in cream that often puzzle dairymen and buttermakers, are nearly always the result of variation in the speed at which the separator is run.

A brief explanation of the principle of separation will make this clear : The force developed by the rapid rotation of the separator bowl (called centrifugal force) tends to throw the heavy part of the milk (the serum, or skimmed milk) to the outside edge of the bowl. The lighter part of the milk' (the cream) is thus forced toward the center of the bowl. The greater the speed of the bowl, the greater is this centrifugal force that separates the light and the heavy part of the milk — therefore, the more efficient is the separation. When the bowl is not rotated at the speed specified by the manufacturer of the separator, a larger portion of the heavy part of the milk will not become separated, but will remain in, and pass off in the cream, which will therefore contain more milk and less butterfat.

Another thing to consider is that the bowl of a separator makes many revolutions to each turn of the crank. The speed of the average bowl about 4 inches in diameter is 9,000 R. P. M. If the crank is turned 60 times a minute, the number of revolutions of the bowl for each turn of the crank is 150. \i the operator turns the crank only half of a turn per minute less than

Separating the Cream 25

the required speed, the bowl travels 75 R. P. M. less than it should. Thus it can be seen that only a slight variation in the speed at v^hich the crank is turned makes a considerable difference in the skimming efficiency of the separator. The rated speeds of most cream separators are such that a drop of a few revolutions does not cause much loss of butterfat in skimmed milk, as might be supposed. But it affects the percentage of butterfat in the cream and is the most direct cause of variations in cream tests.