Reaching New Heights
After months of delays, Light Farm Milk is now in production!
For as long as I can remember I have been the tallest and strongest (never fittest) in my family. It’s been pretty easy with five little boys but now that those little boys are five smelly, teenage hefierlumps, it’s a different kettle of fish. I’m working on a new unit of measurement- its called the KGR (kid growth rate). Pretty soon I will have to hand the over the height reins to my 13 year old who is 6ft 2 and half and growing like a scotch thistle on steroids. His KGR since Christmas is a cm a month. In December I was still teasing him about being a Collingwood six footer but now 9 months later he is nearly looking me in the eye.
Obviously, the main reason for the exceptional feed conversion efficiency and hence growth is excessive consumption of high quality dairy products!
I know I can still take him on for a little while yet, because while he will soon have a height advantage, overall mass ratio cancels the height out. I also have a bit of a mongrel advantage when its required to get me across the line. When the inevitable happens and I am about to lose, that is when I will start telling George that with great power comes great responsibility and strength isn’t as important as wisdom in a vain last ditch attempt to maintain some relevance.
Speaking of great heights, I have been walking a touch taller this month as we are back on top of our quality issues in the factory and the farm is slowly starting to dry out. Finally some of the new equipment especially the HTST pasteurizing unit and the milk separator are starting to be used in our regular production runs and will deliver benefits.
Our light milk (or nominally 2% milk) will go on sale in about a weeks time, only 9 months behind schedule!
How do we make light milk? We cheat!
I’ll use 1000 litres as an example-We would fully skim 500 litres of regular milk taking away all the cream and then add that skim to 500 litres of full cream milk to create a mid strength brew. With the aim of retaining most of the flavour and mouthfeel characteristics of the full cream milk. Everyone is excited except me, I only feel relief and am fully prepared for some high stress moments (which we will label minor teething problems).
It will help our marketing no end I am expecting over time light milk sales to be around 30% of full cream milk sales. When we approach a stockist it makes no sense for them to buy full cream off us and light milk off someone else, we need to be a place where we can supply nearly all their dairy needs and the light milk takes us a step closer to being useful as a supplier.
I am not making rash or any promises on the speed of development and potential sales availability of cream, ice coffee or butter but they are definitely well in the planning.
Making ice cream would be also be great fun. It would add another layer of complexity to an already struggling business, having to have freezer storage and transport capabilities. Whilst it’s not on my imminent radar, I understand with great power comes great responsibility, and it would be negligent for me not to do extensive trials and more importantly, tasting.
I’ll probably need some volunteers!