Objective - to establish a basic understanding of:
i) how feeding with a high content of grass, leguminous plants and herbs affects the quality of organic milk and dairy products,
ii) the effect of milking technology on milk quality from cows at pasture,
iii) how new heat treatment methods affect milk quality and maintain the attributes of the milk
Preliminary results The preliminary results show that the pasture products increase the content of a-linolenic acid in milk but that there is a major individual variation in the content of a-linolenic acid in milk from different cows and that their consumption at pasture seems to be different.
Furthermore, the cows are very selective in their selection of plants when at pasture and this should be taken into consideration when developing pasture feeding.
The results also show that there is a major difference between Danish Holstein cows and Jersey cows as regards transfer of a-linolenic acid to the milk. Thus, the Jersey cow hydrogenates the unsaturated fat and it is difficult to increase the content of a-linolenic acid in the milk.
