Excerpt from Butterfat Sampling in Bulk Handling and Comparative Milk Solids Losses This study was designed to evaluate the present butterfat sampling procedures used in the bulk handling of milk. It also compared losses of milk solids with the bulk and the conventional can procurement system. The Rochester (minn.) Dairy Cooperative furnished data for making the analysis on a contractual basis. The study was made in June and July 1953 and included 26 producers. Milk was shipped on an every other-day basis from 25 producers and daily from one producer. Four drivers participated in the study. The producers shipped a large volume of milk and had little variation in butterfat tests from shipment-to-shipment. The study analyzed the effect on producer tests of the blending action of farm tanks, position in the tank from which samples were taken, and whether fresh or comp031te samples should be used. The study showed milk in farm bulk tanks when agitated for a minimum of two minutes was blended adequately. Differences in tests between selected positions in the farm tanks usually were not significantly larger than the difference in tests between duplicate samples from a single position. Customary practices employed by the bulk-tank truck drivers permitted a variation in agitation from 2 minutes to 6 minutes per farm tank. Variations in agitation time within this range did not affect adequacy of blending. Since bulk procurement procedures usually require at least 2 minutes for the necessary work after agitation is started, a minimum time requirement of 2 minutes would be adequate. Variability between duplicate samples at the same position indicated the error was due to sampling and testing techniques. An additional amount of variability was evident when samples were obtained from different positions. However both of these sources of error were relatively small compared to the variation in the butterfat content between milk ship ments for a given producer. While reasonable efforts should be made to reduce the variability within the farm tank, there was little evidence that test results from any specific position would give consistently higher or lower results than other positions. There was a lack of complete homogeneity between duplicate samples taken from a single position and an additional vari ability when samples were drawn from different positions. Thus, this study showed a sample for testing purposes would be more representative if it consisted of several small samples from different positions rather than one large sample from one position. This would reduce the differ ences caused by the small variability among positions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.