In the
1970s, when milk cans were phased out, Mennonites in the Aylmer area faced a
challenge – how to maintain farming without electricity, yet meet bacterial
standards.
Their solution
was to buy a bulk milk tank, use a gas-fuelled generator to provide electricity
for the cooler and then pool the milk from all their herds.
It meant
that they could collectively lose if one of their members dumped milk into the
tank that had too much bacteria. But it resolved their religion-based dilemma.
Now Best
Baa Dairy at Fergus
has won an innovation award
from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs by setting up
a 240-litre stainless steel tank powered by an electricity generator to cool
their sheep’s milk to the standard required – four degrees within two hours of
milking.
The prototype successfully cooled
milk in just 35 minutes and also heated a barrel of wash water.
Best Baa built a second one, and then
three more that used solar panels instead of a gasoline engine.
“Today, Best Baa gets great sheep
milk, Amish farmers can adhere to their traditions, and the new off-the-grid
technology can be used anywhere that farmers don’t have access to electricity,”
says an OMAFRA news release announcing the award for innovation.
