Vat Manager Plus helps meet tougher onfarm cooling standards requiring raw milk to be cooled colder and faster.
Vat Manager Plus regulates temperature and agitation as well as monitoring critical incoming and in-vat milk temperatures and rates of temperature change. The unit, with its supporting online interface, holds memory for data recording, storage and audit requirements and provides reliable timely notification for milk cooling issues inside and outside of the vat.
Text messages and emails generated from Vat Manager Plus to multiple devices alert farmers if their milk cooling is not on track. Early notification includes milk that is too hot, too cold or taking too long to cool, as well as wash, power and hardware faults. Tru-Test Group’s general manager New Zealand, Verne Atmore, said cooling problems could be notoriously difficult to detect and were often caused by sheer forgetfulness of flicking a switch, isolated power outages or hidden pre-cooling or vat problems.
“Discovery of milk cooling issues regularly happens at tanker pick-up or when the farmer receives a temperature grade. Farmers bear the cost of detecting poorly chilled milk late in the process. They receive no payment for rejected milk and their milk production efforts go down the drain.
“Vat Manager Plus will help make latent cooling issues visible so farmers can investigate potential problems early. With tighter control of onfarm cooling and early response to issues as they happen, farmers will have better control over the quality of milk presented for sale and will maximise the payment for their efforts,” Atmore said.
“With a significant uptake of Vat Manager Plus and effective milk cooling monitoring generally we can see flow-on effects into the sector such as a greater national milk yield at current inputs and removal of waste from the dairy supply chain. In the bigger picture, we are moving towards solutions that show NZ at the global forefront of responsible dairying.”
Vat Manager Plus has been developed and manufactured in NZ drawing on Tru-Test’s technical excellence in agricultural weighing and EID systems, dairy refrigeration and data management systems, Atmore said.
It features a robust vat-side unit with temperature display easily viewable at a distance, in low light and extreme brightness, and includes high-specification system components and temperature probes to deliver superior accuracy. A 30-day history was accessible from the vat-side unit with extended online history.
Looking forward, Tru-Test has signalled a market release of Vat Manager Auto, a premium monitor-controller that will automatically turn on vat and side wall refrigeration and provide vat volume alerts.
Vat Manager Plus has a recommended retail price of $1795 plus installation.
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