Should Cheese Makers Separate Excess Milk, Sell As
Condensed Skim and Sweet Cream
Volume 131 No. 41, Friday, April 13, 2007
ANSWER:
With current skim powder prices, wouldn’t it be wiser to simply
separate excess patron milk to sell it as condensed skim and sweet
cream?
1. By the term “excess,” do you mean to say to not expand your current
cheese customer base, even though higher milk volumes at lower seasonal prices
in spring and summer 2007 are soon to be expected?
2. Is the intent to reduce an “oversupply” of fresh cheese, hopefully
maintaining current or even increasing prices?
3. Currently, high whey, whey protein concentrate and even lactose may offset
initially high skim prices and/or lower cheese prices in the near term.
4. Perhaps a combination of more cream sales, selling excess patron fluid skim
solids, and reduced fat levels counterbalanced with higher moisture, salt and
pH might be considered. As we enter the spring-summer seasons, cheese body tends
to be softer, so fat reduction and elevated pH might be suggested in any case.
Higher moisture, although a major cost reduction alternative, may not be prudent
near term because of traditionally weaker cheese body in the summer months.
5. One should also reconsider current butterfat premiums when selling sweet cream.
Fluid milk sellers may now be in improved situations to bargain for higher sweet
cream premiums.
As shown in Table 1 (below), 45,000 pound of 47% sweet cream contains 21,150
pounds “pure” milkfat and 2,196 pounds skim milk solids.
Table 1. Conversion of sweet cream into unsalted,
unwashed butter
100% Mass Balance
Skim
Total
Product
Pounds
Gallons
Fat
Solids
Solids
Moisture
Sweet Cream
45,000
5,428
47%
4.9%
51.9%
48.1%
Crude butter
26,064
81%
1.8%
82.8%
17.2%
Fluid buttermilk
18,936
2,192
0.20%
9.2%
9.4%
90.6%
Cond. buttermilk
4,962
517
0.8%
35.2
36%
64%
Buttermilk powder
1,863
2.0%
93.9%
95.9%
4.1%
# fat
#skim solids
#total solids
#moisture
Sweet cream
21150.0
2206.5
23356.5
21643.5
Fluid buttermilk
37.9
1748.3
1786.2
17149.4
Cond. buttermilk
37.9
1748.3
1786.2
3175.5
buttermilk powder
37.9
1748.3
1786.2
76.4
Typically a fat premium, say a 1.25-1.30 factor, is negotiated to compensate
cream sellers for such lost skim solids.
Lower fat tests, say 40% cream, usually involve higher fat premiums (more skim
solids lost per pound fat sold). Cold cream testing above 47% fat is typically
difficult to handle so one usually avoids these situations.
A cream seller offering 40% fat levels rather than 47% would be at a disadvantage.
One suggestion is to run initial sweet cream slightly high, say 48-50%, then
test and finish off that specific tank with a precalculated amount of very thin,
dare I say near whole milk composition, to achieve an optimal, target cream fat
test.
A butter market of $1.25 would translate into $1.562 per pound butterfat sold
as sweet cream using a 1.25 factor. At a butter market price of $1.40, each pound
cream fat would equate to $1.750 using that same factor (1.25).
Perhaps cream sellers could also bargain for an additional premium to be fairly
compensated for current highly valued skim solids. Table 2 illustrates such a “skim
in cream” premium scenario.
These lost sweet cream skim solids are easily translated into reduced cheese
and whey production. For example, LMPS Mozzarella at 50% moisture, 40% dry fat
(FDB), and 2% salt results in a remaining 28% cheese composition (solids) left
as undefined. The majority of these “undefined” cheese solids are
renneted casein as well as whey solids.
Keeping it simple, we could estimate that for every 1.0 pound skim solids this
cheese maker might see 0.28 pound coagulated casein or 1.0 pound final cheese
being produced. The remaining 0.72 pound skim solids, after consideration of
coagulated casein retained as cheese, would be whey or other by-products.
Let us say that a 45,000 pound load of 47% fat cream was being sold with a butter
market @ $1.35 and nonfat dry milk powder @ $1.45. The previously negotiated
STD fat premium was 1.27.
Added skim premium would be calculated @ $0.03538 per pound butterfat using the
equation presented in Table 2. In this case, the cream seller would be reimbursed
@ $38,947.72 for the “pure” butterfat plus another $748.29 to account
for “lost” skim solids retained in that cream. In total, the cream
seller could expect to see $39,696.01.
Our Expert: Don Dahlstrom has over 33 years of dairy experience in varied positions.
Don is currently very active consulting for companies throughout the world.
He holds several cheesemaking patents and does not want these articles to go
unchallenged. All articles remain open to debate.
To ask Don a question or follow-up on this question, e-mail: columnists@cheesereporter.com.•
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