Every Day Is Earth Day

April 22, 2013. Happy Earth Day! Here at Bremer Farms every day is Earth Day. We support practices that make economic sense, help the environment and are socially responsible to our communities and our world. One of the ways we do this is by reducing energy and reusing water through the use of a plate cooler. So how does it work and why is it good for the environment? When milk leaves the cow it is a warm 101 degrees F. It needs to quickly cool to 40 degrees and a plate cooler helps with this. After the milk leaves the cow it travels from the milking machine through stainless steel pipes to the cooling tank. (It's never touched by human hands). Along the way, before reaching the cooling (bulk) tank, it goes through the plate cooler.

Our plate cooler is mounted on the ceiling. The milk enters the cooler on the lower left side of the above picture. It stays enclosed in these pipes but winds its way through this cooling system which has cold water cooling these pipes, therefore cooling the milk that is safely inside the pipes. The milk then moves on to the bulk milk tank via the larger pipe on the lower right of this photo. But what about the water that was used for cooling the milk? That water is piped to a tank in our cow yard where the cows enjoy a clean, fresh drink.

The plate cooler on the ceiling (upper right). Milk travels via pipe to bulk tank (lower left).

Since the cooling process begins in the plate cooler, this reduces our electricity used by the bulk milk tank to cool the milk. The water serves double duty by helping to cool the fresh milk and then moves on to supply the cows with the necessary water needed to produce more milk. One of the reasons we became farmers is because of our love for our land and animals. What better way to show this love than to respect our natural resources?

How are you going to show the love on Earth Day?