Quality Testing

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  • Buying sheep’s milk… What an adventure! – 2019 – Marie-Chantal Houde, Nouvelle France Fromagerie.  A presentation on where and what Fromagerie Nouvelle France looks for when buying sheep milk from other producers to make their cheeses and yogurt and how they pay, as well as some of the challenges and solutions.

  • Milk Quality Standards and Supplier Agreements – 2019 – Sarah Hoffman, Green Dirt Farm.  A presentation on the importance of milk quality for making cheeses and the standards Green Dirt Farm has for milk suppliers.  It also covers some challenges to consider and a payment scheme.

  • Using DSANA’s Production Improvement Program (PIP & EBVs) at Green Dirt Farm – 2019 – Eliza Spertus, Green Dirt Farm.  A presentation on how Green Dirt Farm sheep dairy has used the PIP/EBVs to make culling and breeding decisions that help balance other performance records.

  • Using EBVs for Our Breeding, Selection, and Culling Decisions – 2019 – Quincy Wool Parker, Meadowood Farms.  A presentation on Meadowood Farms’ breeding program and how they collect data for and use EBVs to make breeding decisions.

  • What Can Testing Do For You? – 2019 – Chris Tucker, Rocky Mountain DHIA.  A presentation on the Dairy Herd Improvement Association that goes over what might cause high SCC and why you want a low SCC, why you should test your milk components, and what Rocky Mountain DHIA (RMDHIA) reports show.  It also goes over how to collect and send samples for testing.

  • Current trends of the Spanish Assaf Sheep / Genetic Improvement Program - 2018 - Overview of the genetic improvement of dairy traits in the Assaf breed over the last 25 years.  An intensive selection and breeding program employed by the Spanish Assaf Association has resulted in major improvements in the breed’s milk yield, lactation length, and udder conformation.  The breed improvement program has also included selection for milk composition and somatic cell count.

  • Quality Milk Management - 2016. Frank Welcome. Methods to improve milk quality such as hygiene and sanitation in the parlor, the importance of managing high scc, bacterial count (SPC), housing, nutrition, culling & record keeping.

  • Milk Quality and Dairy Hygiene – 2014 – Gianaclis Caldwell.  A presentation on ways to improve milk quality through milking hygiene, milk storage, herd health, and milk testing.

  • MILK QUALITY FOR CHEESEMAKING - 2010 - Bill Wendorff, Department of Food Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Covers some of the research on various aspects regarding the quality of sheep milk that have a direct impact on the cheesemaking potential of sheep milk.

  • MILK RECORDING AND GENETIC IMPROVEMENT - 2010 - David L. Thomas and Yves M. Berger, Department of Animal Sciences and Spooner Agricultural Research Station, University of Wisconsin-Madison. In Depth look at milk recording processes and other genetic traits like udder conformation. 

  • Residues in milk after the use of health treatments - 2004 - Neeser. Dr Neeser defines residues, why they matter, extralabel use, testing for residues, and risk management.

  • Processing of frozen sheep milk - current procedures and difficulties encountered - 2004 - Clark. J Clark from the Old Chatham Sheepherding Co. explains the learnings from several years of refining the process of freezing milk for making yoghurts and cheeses. He covers purchase specifications, transport, processing, problems, handling, quality control, and age of milk.

  • Milk composition and cheese yield from hard and soft cheese manufactured from sheep milk - 2004 - Jaeggi. Milk composition has a big impact on cheese yield. The authors studies how composition changes with season so yield can be better calculated and predicted.

  • Control of Listeria monocytogenes in sheep farming and dairy processing - 2003 - Boor. L. monocytogenes can cause serious human and animal disease and human cases have linked to soft cheeses. It is often present in farm and milk and cheese-processing environments, so it is important to have stepsin place to manage it. The authors review listeriosis in humans and animals and the presence of L. monocytogenes in foods and processing environments.

  • To produce milk that the transformers want - 2003 - Lemelin. This article (in French with summary in English) covers what producers can do to ensure they produce milk that cheesemakers desire. As well as making decisions about breed, nutrition, and other important farm management aspects, producers ideally find out what the people who buy their milk want. It covers milk quality, hygiene, cheese yield, cheesemaker preferences, and other factors.

  • The evolution of factors concerning clinical mastitis in the Roquefort area from 1980 to 2000 - 2003 - Lepetitcolin. At the time of her presentation, there were 2,400 dairy sheep farms whose milk was made into Roquefort cheese. "Dairy references" (quotas) were developed during a period of oversupply that govern milk quality, price, and quotas. An association of veterinarians was formed to create a global approach to hygiene, transmit knowledge, and foster partnerships with technical experts. The  resulting 6-point mastitis control plan is summarised, as well as some statistics. In French with English summary.

  • Somatic cell counts and mammary infections on small ruminant dairies in Vermont - 2002 - Scruton. This is a summary of the papers "Prevalence and incidence of subclinical mastitis in goats and dairy ewes in Vermont, USA" and "Relationships among somatic cell count, California Mastitis Test, impedance and bacteriological status of milk in goats and sheep in early lactation", published in Small Ruminant Research.

  • Factors affecting the quality of ewe's milk - 2001 - Bencini. In this comprehensive article, the author defines milk quality, factors that affect quality.

  • Regulations for sheep milk - 2001 - Carroll. The Wisconsin sheep milk industry was unregulated before 1989. This article describes the history of regulation, licensing, permitting, quality testing and producer guidelines that have since been introduced for dairy sheep farms in Wisconsin.

  • Effect of freezing on milk quality - 2001 - Wendorff. Scientists froze raw sheep milk  at either -15C or -27C and thawed it periodically to measure microbiological and physicochemical properties, and made cheese and yoghurt. The different freezing temperatures produced different results, with -27C being generally more favourable.

  • Factors affecting milk traits and udder health in East Friesian milk sheep - 2000 - Scharch. Milk samples were taken from all ewes in a flock of 40 East Friesian ewes every 14-35 days through lactation. This study reports on their production, milk quality, and udder health statistics and the effects of number and stage of lactation, number and weight of born and weaned lambs, and ewe body weight on milk yield, composition, and udder health.

  • Development of a computerized dairy record keeping system - 2000 - Buschbeck. In 1999 the Ontario Dairy Sheep Association and the EweByte sheep flock recording system received a grant from the CanAdapt Small Projects Initiative to develop a record keeping system for dairy sheep. Dr Buschbeck presents the capabilities of the new milk module that was added to EweByte and other capabilities that were still under construction at the time.

  • Technical Note - Accuracy of the Waikato Milk Meter Jar - 1999 - Berger Academic review of testing efficiency of Waikato milk meters.

  • Mastitis of Dairy Ewes: Etiology, Detection and Control 1998 Billon/Decremoux  Academic discussion on mastitis in sheep and bulk tank