By Katie Spring
The Diamond family of Smithfield, PA has been milking cows for 67 years.
Brothers Louie and Paul Diamond grew up learning how to farm from their father, Alvin, who started Diamond Farms in 1957. Today, they milk around 110 cows. With a focus on continual improvement and profitability, Diamond Farms partnered with Technical Assistance (TA) providers from Penn State to evaluate their current practices and equipment. This collaboration led them to apply for a Dairy Food Safety & Certification Grant from NE-DBIC.
The grant offers funding to dairy farmers and processers to improve their food safety practices and protocols. Ideally suited for farmers and processors with a strong baseline of food safety, this funding paired well with the Diamond’s goals.
“Our core business is producing good tasting, nutritious, high-quality milk,” Louie said. With TA assistance, they found that outdated equipment was decreasing their efficiency and impacting their milk quality. Their old milk meters were prone to malfunction and required frequent replacement of parts. This meant significant ongoing labor for enhanced sanitation. New equipment could bolster their multi-layered milk safety program that already includes animal health protocols, equipment cleaning and sanitation, and milk testing.
“Our old meters worked by a scale weighing the milk and the dumping it. There were lots of diaphragms and gaskets. They were difficult to clean. Instead of being clean in place, I had to manually clean them about every other week. There are 20 meters and it took 15 minutes to clean one,” said Louie. Cleaning issues were leading to high bacteria counts. With better meters, Diamond Farms could maintain better quality milk, which in turn would lead to better markets.
With $40,000 in grant funding, Diamond Farms purchased new milk meters.
Without a multitude of parts like their old equipment, the new meters are both more efficient and help maintain milk quality.
“The new meters use infrared sensors to measure the milk,” Louie reported. “The milk just flows through a line and is measured. Water flows easily through it without any obstructions and the cleaning process works just the way we hoped.”
With the installation of the new meters, bacteria counts dropped dramatically, which led to additional quality premiums for the farm. Along with milk quality improvements, the Diamonds are seeing substantial savings now that they no longer have to deal with constant repairs. As a result, the new milk meters support the long-term viability of the farm. This is crucial not only for their farm, but for the dairy farming ecosystem.
As Louie says, “For us to stay in business helps other farms stay in business. That’s because the support infrastructure for farming is fragile. It’s especially difficult to get milk hauled because dairy farms are spread out. Each time a farmer goes out of business, it makes it that much harder to get the milk hauled. Also, consumers want high quality milk, and that’s what we can consistently and routinely can supply.”
In this way, opportunities like the Dairy Food Safety & Certification Grant not only impact individual farms, but also support the regional dairy system.
This grant is expected to open again in February 2025. View the NE-DBIC Funding Calendar for a full list of grant programs for both farmers and processors.
