Dairy

AMPI Team Decides to Reduce Waste The Associated Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) plant in Dawson knows making decisions as a team can save money. The plant needed to reduce water use and cut the amount of solids in its wastewater. After talking with MnTAP food processing specialist John Polanski, a waste reduction team was formed.

Dairy Plant Reduces Water Use and BOD Saving Over $26,000 Decreased water use by fine tuning the computer programming that ran its clean-in-place (CIP) systems which sanitize equipment. Saved over 8.5 million gallons of water and over $20,000 annually. Decreased biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) loading by 2.5 percent, saving an additional $6,000 per year.

Dairy Waste Reduction Tips Find out what Minnesota dairy companies are doing to reduce wastewater and product losses. Includes 10 water conservation strategies.

Evaluating the Use of Mercury Manometers in the Dairy Industry Under the direction of Dairyland Equipment Services Inc., and Wabasha County, a MnTAP intern evaluated the use of mercury manometers in Minnesota's dairy industry and researched alternative vacuum gauges.

Phosphorus: Reducing Releases from Dairy Processing Facilities Dairy operations can be significant sources of phosphorus released to wastewater treatment plants. Cleaning production lines, scraping food preparation vats, cleaning and rinsing equipment, product lost to the drain and floor cleaning chemicals are all ways phosphorus enters the wastewater.

Schroeder Milk Saves $400,000 through Product Savings and Water Conservation Using a pollution prevention team, Schroeder Milk Co., identified opportunities for process improvement, saving over $400,000 and 13 million gallons of water every year.