Monitoring of critical dairy farm conditions

A milk storage and quality control system comprising:

• a) a milk flow line from a milking station to a milk storage tank;
• b) a volume sensor for determining the volume of milk;
• c) a temperature sensor in said milk flow line;
• d) a milk storage tank temperature sensor;
• and
• e) an alarm for alerting when the temperature of milk in said milk storage tank is outside of upper and lower threshold temperature limits, said alarm providing an indication of the quality of milk stored in said storage tank so that appropriate corrective or other action may manually or automatically be taken with respect to said milk in said milk storage tank.

A method of monitoring the storage of milk in a milk storage tank comprising the steps of:

• continuously monitoring the temperature of milk in said milk storage tank;
• providing an alarm when the temperature of milk in said milk storage tank is less than a preselected minimum or more than a preselected maximum threshold temperatures;
• and
• manually or automatically taking appropriate corrective or other action with respect to milk in said milk storage tank in response to said alarm.

A system for monitoring at least one parameter of a milk storage facility, and for automatically providing an alarm that said monitored parameter is outside of predefined thresholds, comprising:

• (a) at least one sensor to monitor at least one said parameter, and to generate signals which provide data which is representative of said monitored parameter;
• (b) an “on-site” communication device for receiving said data, for comparing said data with said predefined thresholds, for providing an alarm when said data is outside said thresholds, and to transmit said signals to a network operation center;
• and
• (c) wherein said network operation center is configured for receiving said signals from said “on-site” communication device, said network operations center having resident software which is programmed to process data which is received from said “on-site” communications device, and to generate preselected information signals.