Grade B milk

Mike (WA) · Nov 25, 2013

rrlund's post below got me to thinking about Grade A vs. Grade B milk. I think it was about 1953 or so that Grade B just ceased to exist in SW Washington, and you had to go Grade A or get out. I can just barely remember "helping" dad take the cans out to the stand (I was about 4), and saying Hi to the "Daddygoat" (Darigold) man. Folks got a kick out of that, because he was kind of a surly old goat.

Do any areas of the country still have Grade B?

Fordfarmer · Nov 25, 2013

Wisconsin does. As far as I know, most states do... it just has to be used for making "hard" products, like cheddar (or other) cheese, butter, etc., not for fluid milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, ice cream.

INCase · Nov 25, 2013

My dad talks about driving milk truck when he was in high school for my Uncle's route. Had a system of packing the full and empty cans just right so keep everything in order. That would have been 1956-58-9ish. By today's rules he would have needed a cdl. that was in western PA. very few dairy's A or B left.

Here in Northern IN I think most of the Amish were grade B but have switched to A or gotten out of the business.

John T · Nov 25, 2013

Mike, its been a few years, but an in law type of relative of mine purchased a small local cheese factory in order that the local Amish still had a market for their Grade B Milk PLUS he had a source of it to produce his cheese. That cheese factory is still operating but I have no idea if they still buy that grade B milk, I will have to ask him.

Some years back we had milk goats plus an old Jersey/Guernsey/Ayrshire family milk cow we, of course, hand milked MAN I LOVED THAT MILK but I started gaining weight then too grrrrrrrrrr

John T
John T

farmerwithmutt · Nov 25, 2013

cheese factory i work in wisc got goats milk the main plant has table cheese also the brie and feta is from b milk. the yogart room takes grade a milk they also split the organic and non organic . confused ? working there is a little bit like being at the almo english is a second langauge and the owners are french! im thing i have a good exuse to drink!!

randy hall · Nov 25, 2013

amish in ohio still have can milk sitting out by the road waiting for pickup. I wonder if the milk is already half cheese when it gets to the cheese plant in the summer.

Leroy · Nov 25, 2013

Eastern Indiana in the Berne area there still are grade B producers. We quit grade B on election day in 1980 when the dairy heard left due to no hauler, plant still operated for a while after.

D beatty · Nov 25, 2013

Grade B milk is used to make butter,cheese, condensed milk,evaporated milk, dried milk, and in some animal feeds.There are still a few grade b producers and hauler in Michigan and Indiana.

Bruce from Can. · Nov 25, 2013

Some time in the mid 90"s all milk here in Ontario had to be grade A. All milk in the counties around me went to bulk transport in 1965. So when I started in 1981 you could still ship only grade B milk, but it had to go on a sperate truck, and went to a chesse plant. There where still some folks doing farm separated milk, and shipping cream into the late 1990"s, but poor quality of cream with high bacteria load made it acceptable. Picture is of the milk truck at my farm. Bruce

JerryS · Nov 25, 2013

For a couple of years back in the late 70s my second job was working for my neighbor, who ran a couple of trucks picking up raw milk at small dairys in north central Louisiana. I drove one of his trucks. At each stop I had to stick a thermometer in the tank and then draw samples for bacteria testing. We ran at night in order to allow the cooler tanks to lower the milk temp to an acceptable level by pick-up time.

I forget what the drop-dead temp level was that made the made the milk unacceptable for pick-up. It rarely happened, but sometimes a farmer's cooler would go bad without his realizing it.

I don't know if there was Grade A or Grade B---all I know is that when I'd finish my run I'd call the boss and let him know that I'd left a tank behind due to high temp. He'd then tell me that he'd pick it up separately during the day and haul it to the ice cream plant. Somehow that never affected my taste for ice cream, but then, I grew up in a family dairy and I watched a lot of mastitis milk drip through the strainer. You can get used to almost anything.<p

rrlund · Nov 25, 2013

Yep,like I said there's still a Grade B Amish cheese plant near Lakeview Michigan in Montcalm County.
Farm Country Cheese

Fudd · Nov 25, 2013

My Dad sold all our milk cows in 54 when you had to go to a bulk system to sell Grade A milk. I was one happy kid to see those cows leave.

samn40 · Nov 25, 2013

No chance of any grade B milk in N.Ireland....it has to nearly be distilled to get them to take it! Our milk goes for baby food powder, but a lot of it goes for bottled milk......So far as we can see they skim off the good stuff for butter and cheese and sell us whats left as blue top and then add more water for green top........Kinda hurts seeing what they sell as milk knowing we are tested every load for water, anti-biotics and butterfat etc!
Just though some of you may be interested in our milk 'lorries'!
Sam

Bret4207 · Nov 25, 2013

I just looked at my dairyman neighbors price sheet for this month. They have no Grade A, B, etc. They have Class 1, 2, 3, 4. Grade one is fluid milk, grade for is for dried I think he said. Never got around to grade 2 and 3.

The Amish around me shipped in cans until the last local small cheese plant closed. No more trucks hauling cans! Now theres a dumping station every 3 miles or so and all the Amish haul the cans to the station. I'm a little unclear on if each has a tank of their own or if they are sectioned tanks, but everyones milk remains separate. Regular coolers, testing, etc. too. The Amish contract with an Englishman to supply the building and power and the Co-op provides the tanks. Works good so far and I hear the milk quality is up.

S2710 · Nov 25, 2013

In 2005 they still had grade B in Wisconsin. It was picked up with the grade A and was all made into cheese. that is the way it was done at the plant that I hauled into. Other plants may of had different rules. I know that the Amish still have there own cheese plant and that is all grade B.

Bob

GregCO · Nov 25, 2013

Not sure if CO still has grade B or not. I don't think so. Years back I started a Grade A goat dairy and I don't remember that I had a choice to be anything other than Grade A. We had our own creamery and made cheese. Twice a week I sold any extra milk we had to another creamery. They would take all I would sell. I transported it myself to them in a small bulk milk trailer that I built out of an enclosed trailer and a 700 gallon bulk tank. Sold the business in 2007. I miss it.

Greg

Pete in MD · Nov 25, 2013

Class II is manufactured soft products like cottage cheese,yogurt, etc.
Class III is manufactured hard products like cheddar cheese.

rrlund · Nov 26, 2013

Those are classes of Grade A.

Pete in MD · Nov 26, 2013

I don't agree. The Class pricing system is for both A and B grade milk.

In the United States, Grade A milk, also called fluid grade milk, refers to milk produced under sufficiently sanitary conditions to qualify for fluid (beverage) consumption. Grade B milk (also referred to as manufacturing grade milk) does not meet fluid grade standards and can only be used in cheese, butter and nonfat dry milk.

Mike (WA) · Nov 26, 2013

and Class 4 is powder, I think.

Wasn't aware that they had component pricing for Grade B. With component pricing, the smaller dairies around here are going more to "colored" cows- primarily Jerseys, a few milking Shorthorns and Brown Swiss. Haven't seen a Guernsey in years. The big dairies are still pretty much all Holstein.

Grade B milk

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