Improving the efficiency of butter making

Observations made of traditional butter making by smallholders have clearly indicated that churning efficiency was considerably improved by using the agitator. This internal agitator has passed through several phases of Development over the years. Details on the design and construction of the agitator are given further on in the article. Consequently, efficient butter making can be measured by the length of time it takes to churn the milk and, more importantly, by the amount of fat remaining in the butter milk or the amount of fat extracted from the milk. The results of the trials clearly indicated that at a churning temperature of 18 degree C, the average fat content of the butter milk was about 1.4 percent using the traditional method compared with 0.3 percent using the agitator. The average percentage of fat recovered was about 60 percent, compared with 76 percent when using the agitator. The length of time required for churning was 65 minutes for the agitator method.