Chillboost – what is it and what does it do?

Urenui farmer Brad Sulzberger was pondering their two day pick up milk cooling problem and had a brainwave, after a bit of experimenting and building some prototypes he contacted Steve Corkill of Corkill Systems Limited with his idea and together they have developed a product that will assist many farmers with their cooling problems. The saying goes that the simplest ideas are often the best, and so is the case with the CSL Chillboost which has the potential to save many dairy farmers both dollars and headaches as they strive to meet the new dairy cooling requirements.

• Under the new regulations the milk in the vat has to be cooled to 10’C or below within four hours of commencement of milking, or down to 6’C or below within six hours of commencement, and within two hours of completion of milking. The milk must also be held at 6’C or below until collection or the start of the next milking, and must not exceed 10’C during subsequent milkings.
• The Chillboost device is aimed at this last point, the 10’C threshold when adding fresh milk to the vat. Typically milk already held in the vat will be between 4’C and 6’C at the start of milking, with 4’C being the cut-off point, and 6’C being the cut-in point for the chiller system.
• The device is essentially a timer encased in a waterproof module, it connects a shunt to the existing vat thermostat at preset intervals, the timer is set to activate the chiller system around thirty minutes before the start of milking, and “tricks” the chiller thermostat into thinking that the milk is actually warmer than it really is. This causes the chiller to bring the contents of the vat down to the normal cut-off point (usually 4’C) or just below prior to milking, it goes on to repeat this cycle every thirty minutes, the result is that as milk is added it keeps the “blend’ temperature lower than under normal operation where it would wait until the set cut-in temperature (usually 6’C) is reached before starting. In practice, this means that the chiller will never wait to see the normal cut-in temperature during milking times and will hold the milk around the normal cut-off temperature, by the chiller kicking in earlier it has the overall effect of reducing the incoming new milk blend temperature by around 2’C, for a large number of dairy farmers this will allow them to stay under the 10’C blend temperature limit, brought about by the new requirements.
• The unit can be retro-fitted by an electrician to existing chiller systems, the main advantage is that it uses the milk already in the vat as a cold storage bank to help lower the blend temperature as new milk enters the vat, it is easily adjustable to cater for different systems or milking regimes, and lends itself very well to two-day pick-up cycles.
• The unit maximises the performance of the existing chiller system and is an extremely cost-effective option with a sale price of only $195 +GST before having to consider an expensive cooling system upgrade.