Dairy: Cold-water washing - a way to cut your energy bill?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The Clarks of Woodville believe so after testing a cold-water washing product from Ireland and Dairy Farmers of Ontario are watching closely.

by DON STONEMAN

An average Ontario dairy farm pays $1,850 a year to heat water to clean up after milking 69 cows, according to figures published by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). That amounts to about $27 a milking cow, and three quarters of it heats water to maintain the bulk bank and the milking machines. Is there a way to reduce that cost?

Brian Clark thinks so. He and his son David milk 180 cows north of Woodville in Victoria County. Last year, they hosted a single-farm study of a cold-water washing product called Kilco Coldwash. James Mathers, who farms at Little Britain, used the product in Ireland before he moved to Canada to farm a few years ago. He wants to market the product here.

Staff at Dairy Farmers of Ontario, which is charged with maintaining milk quality, including bacteria counts, watched the study carefully. Also watching carefully was Kerry Reibeling, after-market sales manager for Norwell Dairy Systems Ltd. in Drayton.

According to estimates published by OMAFRA, 1.2 million gallons of water are used on dairy farms every day for cleanup and half the water used is heated. The total wash-water heating bill on 5,100 farms is more than $9 million. Three quarters of the hot water is used to wash pipelines and milking equipment twice or three times a day.

By contrast, the bulk tank is washed only every other day, after milk is picked up, and this takes 12 per cent of the hot water required in the dairy milking area. Another 13 per cent is used to wash floors and sometimes it is recycled water.

On dairies where cows are housed in tie stalls, cleaning the pipelines takes 3.1 gallons of water per cow per day. Parlours require 3.7 gallons per cow.

What does Clark think of the cold-water wash? "It works well," says Clark, who started milking 180 cows in a used double-eight Germania parlour three years ago. The powdered cleanser must be mixed with water before it can be used to wash. "We didn't find it a whole lot of grief," Clark says.

"It's another chore like putting on your boots." He says that modifications to plumbing cost about $1,000. The wash water is saved to wash the pipeline again and then recycled to wash the floor. Water in Clark's area is scarce after last summer's drought.

Clark says that they previously had problems keeping water hot enough to complete the washing cycle. In a nine-month test starting last February, "the bacteria count dropped to half and we weren't high to begin with."

As for the hydro bill, it fell "when we stopped having to boil all this water all the time." They used to heat 120 gallons at a time.

In addition to saving money on hydro and reducing water use, the Clarks found that teat cup liners, which normally wear out after three months, last twice as long. A complete set costs between $19 and $20 and they change 16 sets at a time, which also takes time.

"Inking" or black dots in the milk from teat cup liners breaking down "isn't an issue," Clark says.

Kerry Reibeling at Norwell Dairy says that there are some problems in dealing with the powdered cleanser.

In most dairy barns, he says, "you hit a button to wash and you go for breakfast and it's done." Using the powder cleaner in a standard parlour "would be a challenge, but he allows, "It's not something that can't be done."

There was no residual effect on the milk from using the powder cleaner, according to a report prepared by DFO. George MacNaughton, director of DFO's production division and regulatory compliance, stresses that DFO wasn't testing for efficacy. "The biggest concern from a regulatory point of view is that there are no cleaning residues left in the pipeline, says MacNaughton. "Producers are responsible for making sure that their pipelines are clean."

Producers have to decide if the energy savings will be of benefit compared to the cost of the product.

MacNaughton says that cold washing products aren't new and his staff told him that there is at least one such product being marketed in Ontario. Reibeling said that he wasn't aware of any cold-water wash products being marketed in Ontario currently. He says that products which failed in the past were "a heavy caustic" that was hard on the inflations and the milking machine gaskets.

He warns that the Kilco product was used only on one sample herd in Canada and that using it "requires a few more equipment modifications." He also stressed that "Norwell hasn't committed to carrying the product.

We want to make sure that all the regulations are met," Reibeling says.

He believes that the Milk Act stipulates that wash water must be heated to 140 degrees F. "We are getting that clarified. We want to be sure of that fact," Reibeling says.

Certainly, the time temperature recorder would have to be adjusted.

It sounds an alarm if the wash water temperature falls below a particular temperature deemed necessary to clean the milk contact surfaces.

However, McNaughton says that the Milk Act doesn't prevent the use of cold water cleaning products.

"You have to provide hot potable water in the milk house," but the act doesn't stipulate that it has to be used for cleaning. "At the end of the day, the milk contact surfaces have to be clean."

"It's not going to be for everybody," concludes Reibeling. "But it is something that is interesting."

Clark agrees. He says that Europe is far ahead on this because energy in North America doesn't cost enough for farmers and governments to change their attitudes greatly towards its use. BF