Milk (1956)

[Music] [Applause] when the Pioneers moved westward in their wagons drawn by oxen one of their most important possessions was the family cow for then the family could be sure to have milk even in pioneer days milk was thought of as the most nearly perfect food when the Pioneers settled on their new farms the younger children often came along to watch while the cow is being milked milking the night was a daily chore and one that the children would soon have to help the cause of those days did not give nearly as much milk as modern milk cows do sometimes the cream was skimmed off the milk and poured into the church the children would often do the churning can you guess what she's making yes it's butter by turning or beating the cream the milk was kept in the cellar so that it would stay cool but usually the cellar wasn't cold enough to keep the milk fresh very long today modern refrigerators let us keep milk for several days fresh and cold and good to drink in towns and cities there are dairies which deliver a fresh supply as often as we need it right to our doorstep of milk and the things made from milk like cream butter and cheese the dairy gets its milk from cows kept in many farms called dairy farms these cows have been bred especially to give a lot of milk and are called dairy cows the dairy farmer works hard all year to provide the right kind of feed for his cows to give milk a cow must have a calf then the cow will give milk most of the year a few days after it's born the calf is taught to drink milk from a pail instead of nursing the mother cow but little calf does not need all the mother cow's milk the farmer milks the cow twice each day a dairy cow gives about 15 quarts of milk a day some give less and some give much more than this in winter and at night on the most modern farms the cows stay in what are called loafing barns here they may eat and rest as they please on this farm the milking is done in a separate building called a milking parlor it's brightly lighted and is scrubbed clean and sweet every day this milking parlor has glass pipes through which the milk will flow they are washed clean with a special solution the cows are brought to the milking parlor twice each day morning and evening they will be fed here as well as milk they get a special mixture of ground upgrade before the milking starts the dairyman carefully washes the cow's udder the first milk goes into a special cup called a strip cup but there he men inspects this milk for cleanliness before the cow is milked modern dairy farms use milking machines before milky the dairyman carefully rinses each machine in a sterilizing water solution now the four cups are attached to the cow's udder the machine milks the cow in much the same way as the dairyman would milk with his hands the machine pumps the milk into the pipes overhead the milk runs through the pipes to a glass container in the next room then the warm milk goes to a refrigerated holding tank for cooling every day a big truck comes to take the farmers milk to the milk plant the tank on this truck is especially made to keep the milk cold the milk will be pumped from the farmers holding tank into the tank on the truck the driver attaches a sanitary flexible tube to the pipe from the holding tank before the milk is pumped the driver takes samples of the milk to be tested at the milk plan he checks the temperature of the milk to make sure it's cold tank trucks like this often collect milk from a number of dairy farms before returning to the milk plant at the dairy plant milk arrives in big milk cans as well as in the tank trucks many farmers especially those with small dairy herds usually haul their milk in cats this dairy has a conveyor to move the cans into the plant the milk from tank trucks is piped through flexible tubes directly into the dairies refrigerated holding tanks where it is kept cold in the dairy laboratory the samples of the milk from each farm are tested for purity each sample is also checked for the amount of cream it contains in the dairy plants every pipe and machine is clean and sterilized every day some of the pipes can be taken apart to be scrubbed and sterilized and a cleaning solution is pumped through others back at the holding tanks the cold milk is ready to start its trip through the dairy all the milk goes through a pasteurizer pasteurizing means heating the milk just enough to destroy germs but there a man in charge of the pasteurizer keeps a close check on the temperature turning a valve sends the milk from the holding tanks through clean pipes to the pasteurizer in the pasteurizer the milk is heated to exactly 161 degrees for just 15 seconds and then is quickly cooled to about 35 degrees just a little above freezing when ordinary milk is allowed to stand the cream rises to the top and the bottle must be shaken to mix the cream of the milk there is also bottled milk in which the cream does not separate this is called homogenized milk milk fed is going to be homogenized is pumped through this machine which breaks up the cream into tiny droplets so small that they never rise and collect on top milk bottles are washed in this automatic bottle washer beer bottles are rinsed soap scrubbed and rinsed again both inside and outside then they are sterilized and cooled this machine can wash and sterilize 12,000 bottles get an hour [Music] and now the milk is ready to use it will go into a big cold storage room to await delivery it has been handled by modern machinery from the moment had left the cow not a single drop has been touched by hand this chair in turns cream into butter which is wrapped by machine after it has been chilled and cut to the right size and here are machines that are making a favorite dairy food can you guess what this will be yes it's ice cream and this is cottage cheese these are just a few of the many good things to eat that our dairies make from milk every morning the dairy truck slowed up to deliver the freshly bottled milk and milk products many dairies supply milk in wax paper containers the milk and wax paper containers is usually that's where it's kept in rated coolers other dairy trucks bring cold fresh milk and milk products right to our homes so that you can