Kem Ormond takes a look at the world of farming back in the day. In this week’s Pastures Past, she’s found an informative Pahiatua Herald article from 1939 on building a milking shed.
Well, if you are thinking of building a new milking shed, have a read of this article from the Pahiatua Herald dated 1939.
One line is particularly intriguing.
“Points worth mentioning are that no permit is required from a local authority to build, alter, or add to a milking shed, and that no fee is payable.”
Oh, how times have changed!
Milking shed construction
Points to be observed.
Avoiding contamination.
Pahiatua Herald, July 31, 1939
The term “milking shed” is a survival of the hand-milking days when the milk was taken from the shed to the dairy.
The dairy was usually some distance from the shed and closer to the house, and was the place where butter and cheesemaking was carried on.
This was generally the responsibility of the womenfolk, with perhaps some help with the heavier operations from the men, states an article in the July issue of the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture.
Today the term “dairy,” as used in the Dairy Industry Act, better describes the milking shed, or, better still, supplying dairy, as used in the dairy regulations to distinguish it from a manufacturing dairy or dairy factory.
As milking is conducted to-day the releaser or separator room is in fact the supplier’s manufacturing dairy, where the first stages of manufacture are carried out.
The most important point to be considered in the construction of a milking shed is the site.
If suitable ground is available in the most convenient position on the farm the decision is an easy one, but if not, the next best site must be chosen, and a number of points in this connection are dealt with by regulation.
Points worth mentioning are that no permit is required from a local authority to build, alter, or add to a milking shed, and that no fee is payable.
An important consideration, however, is that no shed or yard may be erected within two chains of any public road except with the approval in writing of the Director of the Dairy Division.
The reason for this provision is that sometimes the only suitable site on the farm is alongside a road.
Such cases should be discussed with the Farm Dairy Instructor.
The shed should be built on ground with a firm bottom and on an elevation which will provide natural drainage, although steep slopes should be avoided.
If a steep slope cannot be avoided, the slope should be away from the shed and yard.
The provision of a reliable supply of water has been greatly simplified since electricity and automatic high-pressure water supplies have become available.
Entire dependence on rainwater is not satisfactory, as it usually gives out during the dry weather when it is most wanted, and unless it is stored underground it is too warm to cool the milk or cream efficiently.
In a gravitation supply the pipes should be buried, and if the water is pumped from a well the cooler should be connected directly to the pump so as to get the advantage of the lowest temperature.
In laying out the shed, the releaser room should be at the windward end so that any smell from the shed will be blown away from it.
If the shed is intended for milk supply, it is an advantage if there is a fall at the windward end, as this allows a delivery vehicle to be backed in level with the floor.
As already stated, the plan may be varied to suit the owner’s own ideas so long as it complies with the regulations.
The surroundings of the releaser room should be kept in grass and free from drains and stock in order to maintain a pure atmosphere, as it is in the releaser room that the milk and cream are first treated in the process of manufacture.
The floor of the shed, yards and exits must be of concrete.
In addition, the walls at each end of the shed in any dairy erected after 1st August 1938, must be of concrete to a height of four feet, and these and all other exposed concrete surfaces in the shed and releaser room must be finished off smooth with a metal trowel to facilitate cleaning.
The floor, however, must not be too smooth and slippery.
Dwarf concrete walls are provided for in the releaser and engine rooms and also under the wall plate at the back of the shed in order to prevent decay.
The corner posts of the dummies are usually set on raised concrete blocks, but glazed pipes give a good finish.
If desired, the dummy can be suspended from the roof and so make the work of washing down the floor much easier.
Vertical board and batten are in some ways better than horizontal weatherboard on the outside walls, as it is more easily kept clean, and if the inside of the shed is sprayed or lime-washed the liquid does not run through and show on the outside of the boarding.
Draughts.
If there is any point which is neglected more than another it is the provision of draught-proof walls between the three rooms of the shed.
Under perfect management there is probably little danger of the product being contaminated, even if the shed wall is not draught-proof, but there can be little argument regarding the necessity for this provision in the wall between the releaser room and the engine room.
- Source: Papers Past