Madden’s New Product Development, Part 2
January 15, 2016 by Aaron Rhoade
What’s New for Madden in 2016? Part 2
As mentioned in our last blog, the Madden Milk Cooler™ is in the works. We’re excited at the potential of working in a new market. The idea behind this actually came from an attempt at rejuvenating our agricultural business with our metering pumps. While on a local farm the question, “how important is it to get the milk cold as quickly as possible” came up. After some discussion it was deemed worth looking into.
The discussion was based on the idea that small farms would always be interested in products to ensure milk quality, specifically pre-cooling milk before the cooling/storage tank. However, most of them could not justify the expense of a plate heat exchanger, which depending on farm size, can range anywhere from $3,500 to upwards of $10,000.
At Madden, we decided to take the principles of our Sample Coolers, and make a standard continuous cooler designed to be a justifiable expense at the “family farm” level.
Madden Milk Cooler™
The Madden Milk Cooler™ is essentially a Miniature Heat Exchanger, engineered to meet the needs of smaller dairy farms. This new Madden product is designed to provide excellent value based on what is and is not essential to dairy farmers when it comes to precooling their raw milk before the cooling/storage tank. These differences are in comparison to the plated milking coolers already on the market.
What interviewing farmers has done for us so far is allowed us to design a product at a lower cost, resulting ultimately in a raw milk cooler that functions as well as what is on the market today for nearly half the price. You’ll notice many of the features are the same, which we believe is the beauty of it. We’re offering the same type of product, the same solution, as what is on the market now, we’ve simply focused some features to meet the needs of smaller farmers in order to lower the price. Check out the comparisons in this chart, we try to be forthright and unbiased as possible:
| Madden Milk Cooler™ vs. Milking Plate Heat Exchangers (DeLaval, Mueller, etc) (Serving a 30 cow farm for example, 5-10 cows at a time) **Disclaimer below | |
Madden Milk Cooler™ | Plate Coolers |
| $1,900 | $3,500 |
| Capable of brining 86°F body temperature down to approximately 60°F using only ground water | Capable of brining 86°F body temperature down to approximately 55°F using only ground water |
| Must be placed before receiving jar, inline, utilizing vacuum pump | Capable of being placed in line after receiving jar, just before the cooling tank, utilizing milk grade centrifugal pump. |
| Self-cleaning/draining: the tubing spirals down and out of the body of the shell, milk and cleaning solution will not sit/rest anywhere in the device | Must occasionally be cleaned manually (ie. Disassembled and washed) |
| Because this design uses the vacuum side of the receiver jar, up to a certain point (to be determined through testing) it will not matter how many cows are milked at a time (apprx 1-15 for example is expected to be fine) | Because this design is typically placed on the milk grade centrifugal pump side of the receiver jar, usually extra plates must be purchased to handle the increased capacity. |
| No wasted water: After passing through, cooling water can continue on to water livestock. For cows, warmer water is drank in larger quantities, resulting in a larger milk yield | |
| Reduces stress on radiator on the cooling tank, resulting in lower electric costs | |
| Helps ensure milk quality | |
| Made with sanitary grade stainless steel | |
**Please note that these points are based on simple internet research and questioning local farmers. Also keep in mind that our Madden Milking Cooler™ is still a prototype as of now. It is currently in the testing phase. The price of the plate cooler in this example is based on what a farmer told us was the least expensive one he could get. We look forward to being able to present the finished product to you as well as concrete numbers late this spring.
Conclusion
Hopefully now you are as exited for us, as we are, about 2016. We look forward to providing you with some new products to help serve your applications. If you have any suggestions, concerns, or even just a word of encouragement to get these products done as soon as possible, as always, send us an email at info@maddenep.com or give us a call (574) 295-4292 or 800-369-6233.