OVID, Mich. — Michigan dairy farmers have proven they can get a great deal of high-quality milk from their cows.

Ranked seventh nationally in total milk production, cows in the Great Lakes State average approximately 24,000 pounds of milk per lactation, according to the United Dairy Industry of Michigan. All that milk needs to make its way to the processors – quickly.

To meet the processing capacity needs of an ever-growing segment of Michigan agriculture, the Michigan Milk Producers Assoc. (MMPA) completed a two-stage expansion to the Ovid Manufacturing Plant. In 2008, the cooperative invested $62 million in the facility, expanding its capacity to process 60 percent more milk.

Stage one was completed in 2010. The addition moved handling capacity from 3 million to 5 million pounds per day. The second phase of expansion began in 2012 when cooperative members invested an additional $23.5 million in an expanded wastewater treatment system, a new whole milk powder packaging system and new butter churn. This expansion was completed last fall.

The new churn is state-of-the-art and one of only a handful like it nationwide in terms of output capacity. It is the largest commercial churn east of the Mississippi. When fully operational, it can turn 52,500 pounds of cream into 27,600 pounds of butter hourly.

Currently, the system is using only 35,000 pounds of cream per hour, but will achieve full capacity when the third robotic packaging pillar is installed at some point in the future. The previous churn transformed 9,400 pounds of cream into 6000 pounds of butter hourly.

The former system required five employees on the packaging line to fill butter boxes. Two employees now perform the job, producing nearly four times the amount of product each hour the previous system produced.

"One improvement in the new churn is the heat exchanger," said Warehouse Supervisor Dave Hurst. "It feeds cream into the churn at a constant temperature, which creates a more consistent product."

All but 6 feet of the churn and texturizing system are cleaned-in-place (CIP), using a fully automated cleaning system. This enhances the system’s food safety features by minimizing human contact with food in the manufacturing process.

The churn, combined with robotic packaging and palletizing systems, is capable of operating 22 hours straight and, at capacity, will handle 895,300 pounds of cream during that period.

In July 2014, the MMPA formed a strategic alliance with Foremost Farms USA for the purpose of balancing and adding value to their members’ milk supplies in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.

Collectively the two cooperatives initially invested nearly $10 million in the region’s dairy industry to install reverse osmosis technology at MMPA’s Constantine Plant. The technology concentrates three loads of milk into one by removing water and concentrating the milk solids in order to reduce the cost of long-haul milk transportation by two-thirds.

"These expansion projects help improve throughput and efficiency at our manufacturing plants, allowing MMPA and its dairy farmer members to remain competitive and viable in the marketplace," said Sheila Burkhardt, head of MMPA Member Relations and Public Affairs.