Our Town: Cub Scouts tour dairy

50 years ago, March 18, 1966, Brownie Troop 264 and Den 1 of Cub Scout Pack 586 took a tour of O’Fallon Quality Dairy at the northwest corner of Oak and Route 50, now the Prairie Farms ice cream plant. Here’s what they learned.

The huge stainless steel tanks kept on each of the dairy farms on the truck collection routes are filled by pipe directly from the milking machine in the twice-daily milkings. The large tank truck calls every other day, bringing the 2000 gallon load to the garage-like area of the local plant where it is pumped into a storage container while the truck sits at a slant.

Next stop for the milk is the clarifier to remove unstable substances in the raw milk and then to the pasteurizing machine which kills bacteria present in the milk by bringing the liquid to about 143 degrees F for 30 minutes and then chilling quickly to 50 degrees F or less.

A faster, automatic system brings the milk to the more intense heat of 160 degrees F for 15 seconds and cooling. Both methods make the milk meet the high standards of quality without changing the flavor. Machines were observed folding, sealing, filling, defoaming, and closing the coated paper cartons which are delivered to stores and homes.

The scouts were shown the ice milk and ice cream packaging and the large freezer room where the products are stored at 25 degrees below zero to keep the items solidly frozen. The old familiar metal milk cans once used on farms for milk collection are now used for shipping milk to manufacturers by the dairy. The plant has a machine designed to clean the containers. Each child received an ice cream treat.

75 years ago, Mar. 20, 1941. William Sanspeur was appointed chief of police to succeed Melvin Sturman who resigned.

Sanspeur has been with the department for the past 11 years, serving as night officer. In the new job he will be on during the day.

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Our Town: Cub Scouts tour dairy."