Author Topic: raw milk processing room design  (Read 5447 times)

jshields

  • Guest
raw milk processing room design
« on: April 09, 2010, 03:49:25 PM »
I am hoping someone might be able to share a simple design for a milk processing area, with the potential for small-scale cheese production.  I have a Guernsey cow that produces 8 gallons a day, as well as three dairy goats, and I am hoping to get a simple space going to license and sell raw milk.  Can anyone suggest ideas for a space based on efficiency and cost-effectiveness?
Thanks so much!

Cheese Head

  • Guest
Re: raw milk processing room design
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2010, 04:09:04 PM »
Hi jshields, welcome to this forum!

I have no clue but others here probably will, we have members from all over, to help them answer, what Country & Province/State/Area are you in?

linuxboy

  • Guest
Re: raw milk processing room design
« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2010, 05:01:32 PM »
You mean a milk parlour where you do the milking, or a room that has your filling equipment and/or bulk tank (creamery as opposed to parlor)? Or both? Because depending on your state they may need to be separate physical structures.

TroyG

  • Guest
Re: raw milk processing room design
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2010, 05:45:57 PM »
We just finished our facility, but knowing your state will make a difference.

jshields

  • Guest
Re: raw milk processing room design
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2010, 06:11:50 PM »
I'm in Maine.  I'm just looking for a simple idea for a facility to process milk, one that has the potential for being a cheese make room.  The milking parlor I've already got covered. Looking to move on from processing in the kitchen, since we'll have more dairy animals and higher volume. I'm familiar with the regs here.  I'm hoping you might help me in a specific design for efficiency and simplicity, I guess emphasis on low cost.
Thanks for the responses so far!

linuxboy

  • Guest
Re: raw milk processing room design
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2010, 06:41:13 PM »
Talk to Keith Morgan-Davie, might get some local ideas for a cheesemake/processing plant. He designed or helped to design a portable parlor http://www.mofga.org/Default.aspx?tabid=704

Other than that, the design is not so hard. It will be expensive no matter what because you need to buy the vat, pasteurizer if making fresh or pasteurized cheese, molds, etc. The actual building isn't so expensive. And the size of the building is determined by the size of all your implements. How big of a vat do you need?

Off the top of my head, here's what you'll need to buy for the make room. Restaurant auctions are a good source.
- hand wash sink (stainless)
- Double bowl sink for washing
- shelves for storage
- vat, including heating system
- if bottling and selling fluid milk, then either a manual or automatic bottle machine.
- pump or other system to move milk from bulk tank to vat, or to filler.
- few stainless make tables
- press, molds

After you figure out what size you need, arrange them on a piece of paper until they make sense from a traffic perspective, and then draw the walls around the arranged pieces so the walls contain all your equipment. And then figure out plumbing, heating, etc. And then you're done. I know it seems intimidating, but think about it this way... you're just fitting a bunch of expensive stainless hardware into a box, and you need some space to move about. put all the pieces next to each other in terms of the flow of the milk to the finished product, and then figure out all the connections to make them work, and you're done.

For just milk, you can try to get an all in one unit, something like http://microdairydesigns.com/ and then add on cheese making equipment.