🚛 Raw milk transport

Raw milk transport is the journey of raw milk from the farm to the dairy plant. Milk is usually collected once a day or once every two days and delivered within 24 hours. Large farms load their milk into an insulated milk tanker that keeps it cold. Small farmers often carry milk in churns: themselves or through collectors, by car, by bicycle, on animals and even on foot.

If milk travels in churns without cooling, the time on the road matters most. On the other hand, in churns each farmer's milk is kept separate, so one bad batch does not spoil the rest. According to the FAO, collection and transport often make up more than 30% of the cost of processing milk. In the tropics, the rainy season washes out roads, and this is often the very time when milk yields are highest.

Under EU rules, the cold chain must not be broken on the way, and milk must be no warmer than 10 °C when it reaches the plant. It still warms up a little on the road. So at reception the milk is cooled again to +4 °C and only then pumped into silo tanks — huge insulated storage tanks.