Couple of Pics from Work..
#1
05-21-2009, 09:12 AM
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Roswell, NM
Posts: 5,432
Couple of Pics from Work..
Most of yall know, of course, I drive a bigrig. Came in off the road and driving local. Anyway, started this new job Hauling milk about 5 months ago. Good pay, benefits, home every night. Not a bad deal.
I drive for Select Milk Producers http://www.selectmilk.com/Index.htm
I load at the dairies, usually 6-7 different dairies everyday, and off load at the local cheese plant, or select's own plant. The cheese plant brings in a million and a half gallons of raw milk everyday, and produces over a million pounds of cheese every day. Select's plant makes yogurt, cheese, condensed milk, and lactose. Not bad for a town of 50,000 people. lol...
All us drivers have to get a milk handlers card, and pass testing by the USDA, and get certified.
Most of the dairies that we pick up are multimillion dollar operations. We have one dairy, in particular, that just invested over 10 million bucks in upgrading their equipment. A lot of money changes hands on a daily basis, and I don't get any of it. LOL
I usually haul 6500-6700 gallon tankers, and we'll load at each dairy 6-7 times daily. So, in a given day, I will usually haul around 45000 gallons of milk, and an average of 55,000 pounds per load. My truck and trailer, empty, weighs in around 26,000 lbs. Driving down the road, I'll average 5.5-6 mpg. woohoo. lol
Here is a pic of the pump room. After the cows get milked, the milk has to go thru a filtration process, then be cooled down to a minumum of 36 degrees. After that has happened the milk gets put into these tanks. These are the tanks I pull from. Each of these tanks hold 7,000 gallons each. Before I can start pumping, I have to test each load for antibiotics, temp, and quality. After I test, then load, the milk has to go to our local lab, and gets tested for acidity, cream content, blood, viruses, temp, antibitics again..after the milk passes all those tests, it gets tested again at the plants, once it passes there, I can finally off load.
This pic is the pump system I use to load the milk. I can generally pump 55,000 pounds of milk in 1/2 hour.
This pic is a carosuel...The cows love it for some reason. LOL...the carosuel spins at about 5mph, and all the milking process is done by computer. Of course, each dairy has to maintain a cleanliness that is amazing.
This pic, is the hose connection between the dairy tanks to my tanker. It is a 4" hose that is attached to the back of my tank. It takes a 3" wrench that is 2.5 feet long and torques to 150-170 foot lbs of torque to tighten the hose connections. The hose is about 50 yards long and wieghs, empty, about 150 lbs.
Here, I am waiting in line at a cheese plant waiting my turn to get unloaded. There is a tank in front of me off loading now. This particular plant has 20 silos with each silo holding 65,000 gallons of milk. I can usually unload in about 20 minutes, and it takes another 45 minutes or so to get a certified tank wash done. Each tank wash is done with a blend of acid, then water rinse, then a sanitizer rinse. The sanitizer is powdered chlorine, basically, mixed at 100-200ppm.
Anyway, tha's my exciting and fun day. lol.......I will generally work 12-14 hours everyday. But I'm home every night, and off on weekends. 14 hours is the max we are allowed to work by DOT. Dam log books. lol....I can load a dairy, test it, and unload it in about 2 hours. Depends on the wash time. Usually, after I unload, I'll drop the trailer, and hook a clean trailer, and we have guys that wash so us drivers don't have to. The only bad thing is, when the weather is bad. Rain, sun, snow, sleet, doesn't matter. We still have to get the milk. Climb the trailers, etc...It does suck when it's cold outside. I need to haul coffee when it's cold. lol
I will on occassion, haul a cream load out of the plants. One load of cream is valued at $120,000 dollars. Doesn't sound like a lot, but turn 50+ cream loads a day out of a plant, and that adds up. Probably, the highest dollar payload, I have ever had, was valued at $7,000,000, but it wasn't milk. LOL....
and ya, I'm bored......hahahaha
I drive for Select Milk Producers http://www.selectmilk.com/Index.htm
I load at the dairies, usually 6-7 different dairies everyday, and off load at the local cheese plant, or select's own plant. The cheese plant brings in a million and a half gallons of raw milk everyday, and produces over a million pounds of cheese every day. Select's plant makes yogurt, cheese, condensed milk, and lactose. Not bad for a town of 50,000 people. lol...
All us drivers have to get a milk handlers card, and pass testing by the USDA, and get certified.
Most of the dairies that we pick up are multimillion dollar operations. We have one dairy, in particular, that just invested over 10 million bucks in upgrading their equipment. A lot of money changes hands on a daily basis, and I don't get any of it. LOL
I usually haul 6500-6700 gallon tankers, and we'll load at each dairy 6-7 times daily. So, in a given day, I will usually haul around 45000 gallons of milk, and an average of 55,000 pounds per load. My truck and trailer, empty, weighs in around 26,000 lbs. Driving down the road, I'll average 5.5-6 mpg. woohoo. lol
Here is a pic of the pump room. After the cows get milked, the milk has to go thru a filtration process, then be cooled down to a minumum of 36 degrees. After that has happened the milk gets put into these tanks. These are the tanks I pull from. Each of these tanks hold 7,000 gallons each. Before I can start pumping, I have to test each load for antibiotics, temp, and quality. After I test, then load, the milk has to go to our local lab, and gets tested for acidity, cream content, blood, viruses, temp, antibitics again..after the milk passes all those tests, it gets tested again at the plants, once it passes there, I can finally off load.
This pic is the pump system I use to load the milk. I can generally pump 55,000 pounds of milk in 1/2 hour.
This pic is a carosuel...The cows love it for some reason. LOL...the carosuel spins at about 5mph, and all the milking process is done by computer. Of course, each dairy has to maintain a cleanliness that is amazing.
This pic, is the hose connection between the dairy tanks to my tanker. It is a 4" hose that is attached to the back of my tank. It takes a 3" wrench that is 2.5 feet long and torques to 150-170 foot lbs of torque to tighten the hose connections. The hose is about 50 yards long and wieghs, empty, about 150 lbs.
Here, I am waiting in line at a cheese plant waiting my turn to get unloaded. There is a tank in front of me off loading now. This particular plant has 20 silos with each silo holding 65,000 gallons of milk. I can usually unload in about 20 minutes, and it takes another 45 minutes or so to get a certified tank wash done. Each tank wash is done with a blend of acid, then water rinse, then a sanitizer rinse. The sanitizer is powdered chlorine, basically, mixed at 100-200ppm.
Anyway, tha's my exciting and fun day. lol.......I will generally work 12-14 hours everyday. But I'm home every night, and off on weekends. 14 hours is the max we are allowed to work by DOT. Dam log books. lol....I can load a dairy, test it, and unload it in about 2 hours. Depends on the wash time. Usually, after I unload, I'll drop the trailer, and hook a clean trailer, and we have guys that wash so us drivers don't have to. The only bad thing is, when the weather is bad. Rain, sun, snow, sleet, doesn't matter. We still have to get the milk. Climb the trailers, etc...It does suck when it's cold outside. I need to haul coffee when it's cold. lol
I will on occassion, haul a cream load out of the plants. One load of cream is valued at $120,000 dollars. Doesn't sound like a lot, but turn 50+ cream loads a day out of a plant, and that adds up. Probably, the highest dollar payload, I have ever had, was valued at $7,000,000, but it wasn't milk. LOL....
and ya, I'm bored......hahahaha
Last edited by BigRig18Wheeler; 05-21-2009 at 09:27 AM.
#3
05-21-2009, 02:13 PM
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Washington
Posts: 21,060
See....this is what I'm talking about. I love to see what other people are doing. Oh sure we all have that common interest in motorcycles, but its great to see other stuff too. Oh and I LOVE MILK!!!!!! Thanks man. 
it's nice to be home everynight. thanx for sharing
#8
05-21-2009, 05:20 PM
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Roswell, NM
Posts: 5,432
Hi, my name's, Lot Lizzard. LOL lol lol
#10
05-22-2009, 06:26 AM
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Roswell, NM
Posts: 5,432
I USED to like milk....LOL...cool thing tho, I get as much free milk as I want to take home. Was bored a couple of weeks ago, and grabbed a gallon of fresh raw milk and went to my grandmas house and she taught me how to make butter. That was cool and homemade butter is awesome!!!