What happens to milk from North Hill Farm Dairy:

 

Cows are milked by Ian and Jim twice a day, with 12 cows being milked at a time whilst they are being fed in the parlour.  It is an ideal time for Ian and Jim to check the cows over for health problems including mastitis and foot problems, however as our cows are out at grass this is very rare. 

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The Raw Milk is stored on the farm in a refrigerated milk tank before it is placed into our vending machine. Therefore our raw milk will be fresh on your table the very next day!!

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Milk that doesn't go into our vending machine is collected by Arla to go to supermarkets. Milk which goes to Arla is collected every other day in a large milk tanker which can collect up to 26,000 litres, this is then taken to the factory for pasteurisation in Aylesbury.

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Once it arrives in Aylesbury it can be stored there for up to four days before it is processed. Once processed, the milk is put in plastic containers and makes it way to our supermarkets and shops all round the country. It could be up to two weeks before our lovely fresh milk is on your table! 

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Here are some of the technical terms for milk sold in the UK.

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Raw Milk

Before pasteurisation all milk was raw milk. Historically, although there is well documented health benefits associated with drinking raw milk, there were also health risks with drinking raw milk. These were particularly tuberculosis, brucellosis, and bad bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli and Campylobacter. When pasteurisation was introduced, it sterilised the milk of these harmful elements. It is for this reason the Food Standards Agency Health Warning "This milk has not been heat treated and may therefore contain organisms harmful to health" must be put on the bottle. Raw milk and pasteurised milk are totally different. In fact you could almost say that they only have two things in common, they are both white in colour, and both called milk! The more you understand raw milk, the more you realize what an amazing food it is.

 

Pasteurisation 
Before pasteurisation, raw milk had associated health risks. Tuberculosis and Brucellosis were found in many herds at the time, and these diseases could be passed on through the milk. Also, the actual milking process was very basic allowing contaminants into the milk that contained bad bacteria such as E.coli. So there were problems many years ago. But what about today? In the UK, Tuberculosis is still a big problem in most of Wales and the Southwest. However, in the late 1970s, the UK became free from Brucellosis following a nationwide eradication programme. North Hill Dairies herd is TB and Brucellosis free. Today’s herds are milked in a hygienic environment, using advanced milking equipment that is kept sterile. We pride ourselves on our attention to hygiene to ensure the strict bacteria tests conducted on the milk by the Food Standards Agency are easily met. Today, our milk is regularly analysed and milking plant regularly inspected to ensure that the cleanest milk is produced. In this way all the benefits of the good bacteria in the milk are kept, without having any of the problems associated with bad!

Homogenisation 
This is the physical smashing of the milk fat particles into smaller fat particles, so that the fat particles do not rise to the top, but remain in even suspension throughout the milk. This ensures the colour is consistent (there is no cream at the top of the container, or cream line).

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