More and more farmers are looking towards ways of diversifying their farms and adding value to their milk.

There is also a greater focus on sustainability and the need to support dairy farmers to ensure they get a fair income for their produce.

This has led to an increase of milk vending businesses and farmers turning towards becoming artisan producers and processing their milk into cheese, ice-cream or yoghurt.

Unison Process Solutions, based in Limerick, is an expert in dairy processing, with over 40 years' experience in pasteurisation.

A one-stop-shop for all the advice and equipment you need to start processing, Unison has helped dairy farmers from all over Ireland and the UK to get more value from their milk.

Unison’s managing director Paul Sheehan says: “Over 10 years ago, we first started manufacturing compact pasteurisers for artisan producers.

"The reason we developed these was because we spoke to so many dairy farmers who were interested in processing their own milk, but were not able to commit the time and labour to batch pasteurisation and they could not find a continuous flow pasteuriser that fit their needs and budget.

"Anything that had the automation they required was much larger than required and very expensive.”

Unison compact pasteurisers were developed with these producers in mind. Unison has concentrated on developing systems which are user-friendly, fully automatic and cost-effective.

Through 10 years of tweaks and improvements to the models, Unison now has a range of innovative plug-and-play compact pasteurisers that are the perfect solution for on-farm processing.

“Unison pasteurisers are 100% automatic with one-touch operation. Using the continuous high temperature, short time (HTST) method of pasteurisation, our pasteurisers are three times faster, require 10 times less labour and are more economical (6.5 times lower operational costs along with less energy and water usage) than traditional batch pasteurisers.

"Our compact pasteuriser customers range from small to medium processors (100-2,000l/hr) who are processing milk for vending, bottling, cheese, yoghurt, ice-cream and more.”

A new product that Unison has added to its portfolio is the Smart Microdairy, a plug-and-play solution which includes everything you need to start milk vending.

The newly launched mini-dairy has already won four innovation awards, from Enterprise Ireland, National Dairy Show and the British Dairying Magazine.

Speaking about the invention, Paul says: “Over the past few years, we saw a huge increase in the amount of enquiries for milk vending.

"Currently, 90% of the customers with a milk vending business in Ireland are using a Unison compact pasteuriser.

"The more customers we worked with for vending made us realise that we could create a complete system that would automate the process even further and make milk vending a very easy diversification for farmers.”

The Smart Microdairy is an innovative complete hygienic pasteurising and dispensing solution.

The unit is built to Department of Agriculture standards and does not require any additional building - all that is required is a concrete base, internet, electricity, drainage and water supply.

This plug-and-play micro dairy can be installed on farm in one day and includes everything the farmer requires to pasteurise and dispense their milk.

The main benefit of the Smart Microdairy is that it does not require the farmer to manually operate the pasteuriser or to even enter the processing room.

The process is started by a simple touch of a button on a phone or tablet from outside the unit.

This is a huge change from the current process where farmers would have to change from their farm clothes into a gown, hat and shoe covers, and ensure they are keeping to all HACCP guidelines when entering the unit.

With the Smart Microdairy, Unison has streamlined the process so that it requires 10 times less labour, is a much quicker process and health and safety standards are easier to adhere to.

Added to the ease of use, the unit comes with a built-in milk dispenser that is connected to the milk tanks. This means that heavy tanks no longer need to be moved for vending or cleaning.

In comparison to batch pasteurising, with the Smart Microdairy farmers who are milk vending will no longer have to spend hours processing, cleaning and moving tanks.

Paul said: “With the Smart Microdairy, we have taken feedback from our existing milk vending customers, along with Department of Agriculture, to build a unit that includes everything required for milk vending.

"We have made the system as user-friendly as possible, so that dairy farmers no longer have to climb hurdles to be able to set up a business where they are selling directly to customers and have a very easy route to getting more value for their milk.

"We have recently launched the system and are installing units in Ireland in the coming weeks.

"We have also expanded our production and service team in the past few months to ensure that we can increase our production capacity and offer our customers a high level of support both throughout the set-up process and into the future.”

"At Unison, we provide a one-stop-shop for everything you need to start selling direct. We have a range of innovative equipment including continuous flow (HTST) pasteurisers, milk vending machines, chillers and complete hygienic room solutions.

"Our main aim is making your production as user-friendly and cost-effective as possible. We are experts in dairy processing and we have helped dozens of dairy farmers in Ireland and the UK to set up and succeed in selling their milk direct to their customers."

Contact Unison

Take the first step towards getting more value for your milk and contact Unison today. Email sales@unison.ie or call 061-422 224.

Visit the website - https://unison.ie/milk-vending/.