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Automated Testing of Milk¹

Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Utah State University, Logan 84322

ABSTRACT

A tour guide conducting a group through a modern dairy laboratory in the future could well say: "I appreciate this opportunity to take you on a tour through our laboratory. You will note that it little resembles the labs you and I worked in 20 yr ago. Reagent bottles are scarce, pipets are few, and agar media containers are gathering dust on storage shelves. Instruments have built in microprocessors that store operating parameters, control instrument operation, instruct the operator, compute and report results, and command appropriate changes in plant operations. Our lab is interfaced intimately with field work, administration, payment programs, and plant operations in a manner not considered possible a few years ago."

Although our hypothetical guide might not bother to explain it, the magic begins at the farm, where sensitive detectors are built into the milking machinery. Computers interconnect the built-in instruments that measure animal health, temperature, milk produced each milking, and accurately identify each animal.

¹ Contribution 2622 of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. Approved by the director.