UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION 
 
 COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE B enj. Ide Wheeler, President 
 
 BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA Thomas Forsyth Hunt, Dean and Director 
 
 CIRCULAR No. 94. 
 
 THE DAIRYMAN'S RELATION TO QUALITY. 
 
 By L. M. Davis. 
 
 Quality is the keynote of a permanent success. Though the indi- 
 vidual dairyman may doubt this, its truth is established when the dairy 
 business of the whole of California, present and future, is considered. 
 Failure to realize what constitutes success, refusal to meet the obligation 
 which every dairyman owes to the dairy industry, and competition are 
 at least three conditions which have brought upon dairymen of this 
 state the great problem of how quality can be raised, for the place has 
 been reached where improved conditions must prevail, lest the business 
 suffer materially through a more serious quality situation than was 
 anticipated would exist even at this time. During 1912 an average 
 score of but 91^ points was placed upon over 150 lots of butter sent 
 to be scored at the University Farm at Davis, and of this number less 
 than thirty per cent scored 93 points, the requirement for the highest 
 market grade known as "Extras." The percentage of "Extras" 
 changing hands on the principal butter markets is even lower than 
 this, and less than ten per cent of the butter sold in these places 
 will so qualify. The cause for this condition is the improper treatment 
 which milk and cream receive before being placed in the hands of the 
 manufacturer. 
 
 Every person who handles milk or cream knows that they are perish- 
 able products, which require special care. Failure to observe the 
 necessary precautions in handling these products must therefore be 
 considered as a disregard of the principles underlying quality. Were 
 dairymen to apply themselves closely in two particulars, over ninety 
 per cent of the quality troubles would disappear, and this raised 
 standard would be accompanied by a corresponding gain in net profits. 
 Cleanliness and low temperatures are two features the abuse of which 
 leads to low grade dairy production. A large percentage of the bad 
 flavors in milk, cream and butter are the result of dirt, manure, hair, 
 and flies getting into milk during the milking process, and this becomes 
 the more serious for the reason that seventy-five per cent of these con- 
 taminating materials go into solution and can be removed in no way, 
 but remain to cause the development of unfavorable fermentations 
 which produce bad flavors in the market production. The results of 
 the butter scoring contests show that eighty to ninety per cent of the 
 criticisms made in California creamery butter are due to defective 
 methods of handling cream before it reaches the creameries. 
 
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 Dairy conditions which need improvement include not only the 
 maintaining of more sanitary dairy barns, more attention in the mat- 
 ter of cleaning cows previous to milking/ clean milkers, properly con- 
 structed and cleaned utensils and more care in washing separator 
 bowls, but the length of time and the manner in which milk and 
 cream are held. Along with cleanliness must be the other desirable 
 feature, low temperatures. While the market milk dairyman realizes 
 this to some extent on account of his product being more perishable, 
 the dairyman who sells cream often fails to appreciate the advantage 
 of cooling cream immediately after separating, and thus a condition 
 most favorable to deterioration begins to exist shortly after the milk 
 is drawn. Freshly drawn milk is at an optimum temperature for bac- 
 terial growth, and unfavorable fermentations can be checked in no 
 better way than by immediate cooling. If the milk is to be separated, 
 skimming should take place directly after milking, but the cream 
 should be cooled before being mixed with previous skimmings. A 
 tank cooler is so inexpensively constructed and operated that there 
 can be no reasonable objection to its use. Such a cooler may be made 
 from a box or barrel, and should be provided with an inlet at the bot- 
 tom and a discharge at the top. Ordinary milk cans are successfully 
 used as containers, and the water used in cooling may be run into a 
 stock tank. Low temperatures of themselves are effective in helping 
 preserve quality, but an ideal product results when they are accompa- 
 nied by cleanliness in production. 
 
 Careless practices on the dairy favor the adoption of burdensome 
 regulations. With ideal methods in use such would be eliminated, 
 and expensive, artificial processes, such as pasteurization, would be 
 unnecessary. Improvement in the quality of dairy products must 
 begin with the producer, so the dairyman holds the key to the situa- 
 tion. Every effort of the consumer, the distributor, or the manufac- 
 turer, will work to his ultimate benefit. Where payment on the 
 quality basis is established, a premium of three to five cents per pound 
 of butter fat is given for cream of highest grade. Such cream can be 
 produced best by paying close attention to cleanliness and immediate 
 and thorough cooling. Were the matter of quality carried to the 
 point where milk and cream would be produced under conditions 
 which prevail upon certified dairies, it would represent an impossible 
 expense, for excessive prices could not be obtained. But this extreme 
 is unnecessary, and the dairy business of California would receive a 
 wonderful impetus if the bulk of our dairymen would but observe the 
 conditions which they know should prevail.