Cleaning The Bulk Milk Tank

By Stephen Nelson

We stopped using 80-pound milk cans for storing milk when Dad bought a bulk milk tank. The milk tank meant we didn’t have to haul the milk cans to the factory. Although more milk could be stored in the milk tank located in the milk house, the new technology made a different kind of work, every other day, no matter if it fell on a holiday. The milk truck came to our farm every other day about 8 o’clock in the morning to pick up the refrigerated milk from the milk tank. Weekends and during the school holidays, the task of cleaning the tank was mine. Circular lids on each corner of the tank would be removed before I lifted the two sides on the top of the tank. I would take off the lid closest to the milk house door and the milk strainer would be placed in the opening so the milk carried in with milk pails would be poured in and strained before entering the tank. Removing the lids prevented them from falling and clattering on the floor when the rectangular metal tops were raised for cleaning inside the tank. The lids would be cleaned separately. Every nook and cranny was cleaned inside the tank to prevent bacteria and milkstone from accumulating. The milk truck driver would take an unannounced milk sample each month to be sent away for testing. The test result would be mailed to the farmer the following month. You wanted to keep the bacteria count in a certain range on your monthly test of the milk from the tank to keep sending your milk to the factory. The mechanism to agitate the milk was in the middle portion of the tank. The valve tap at the end of the tank remained open after the milk truck driver had emptied the milk tank by suction. The paddles used to agitate the milk in the tank needed a good scrubbing with soapy hot water and a long handled scrub brush. I have no idea how many gallons of water we used with the water hose when spraying the soapy water out of the tank. Washing down the outside of the tank was easier. A spray of the water hose on the floor, even under the tank sent any debris down the drain in the floor. In the summer, it was very hot in the milkhouse, even with the screened windows and the door open.

Dad did have an automated tank washer installed some time later, but some elbow grease was still needed to clean the hard-to-reach places.