Farm Notes.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43374, 17 September 1908, Page 4

Farm Notes.

OYFRRUN OF BUTTER,

Mr A. Jensen, an American dairy authority, speaking on the subject of the overrun of butter, says In this progressive EWorld the relation of production to cost is an ever important question;’and so we find it in the work of butter-making, , One creamery will have 10 per cent over* run and another will have 25 per cent, and both may be wo .king under nearly the same conditions. An overrun is only the- extra ingredients found in butter other than butter-fat, but being part of the finished product, and the butter-fat being the basis of first cost, .the economical relation between bitter and butterfat necessarily becomes a great factor in determining the success of a creamery. Up to within a few years very limited knowledge was at hand as to how to control overrun in butter, but the question presented itself how to obtain more money from a given quantity of butter-fat in the shape of finished butter. Busy brains set to work looking into the composition of butter, with the result that a great range of ingredients other than 0 butter-fat was found. ’Further work established the fact that the overrun is largely controlled mechanically, and ' can be increased and decreased at will, providing the operator knows conditions. Here I wish to say that the question of quality also plays an important part, as with the increase of artificial overrun there wll be a noted decrease in the quality. I now wish to name a few of the principal factors that affect overrun. Ripe cream churns better and loaves less butterfat .in the butter-milk than partly ripe cream, thereby affecting overrun. Large granules retain more moisture than- small ones. A full churning, will show larger water content in the , butter than a small one, although the same method is used. Warm wash water causes the butter to retain more moisture than ordinary cold water, though affecting the body of the butter. Heavy cream shows a larger yield than thin cream, although made under apparently the same conditions. The amount of working of butter affects the yie’d also, and it is possible to increase or decrease the percentage of water by manipulation of the churn. These being some of the effects on yield, and all being controllable, it is clearly seen that the question of yield is primarily mechanical ; still I would not attempt to describe how to obtain a specified overrun, unless I were absolutely familiar with all conditions, but I can state positively that regularity in all details, from the first ha..dling of the raw material to thu finishing of the work, is ab- i solutely essential in the control of ; overrun.