Lowfat Milk Cows? I'm Holding Out for Chocolate...

[Gravy]

...or for one that poops this.

"Marge looks like an ordinary Friesian cow but has three key differences. She produces a normal level of protein in her milk but substantially less fat, and the fat she does produce has much more unsaturated fat. She also produces milk with very high levels of omega3 oils," said Russell Snell, the chief scientist at the biotech firm, ViaLactia.

http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2007/05/meet_marge_the_worlds_first_no.php

This is pretty cool, because it's a natural mutation, and because of how they found her. And omega3 oils? Whodathunkit?

 

[Michael C]

I wonder, does it taste as good as normal milk? I don't want to do without all that yummy fat.

 

[NoZed Avenger]

Milk cows today produce milk with far less fat than 50 years ago, at least according to my Father

When he was growing up, it was common to have milk at 7-8% milkfat. Today, whole milk is about half of that. (although I think it is from the choice of the breed of cow, rather than an actual change in the cows themselves -- i.e., the industry moved to Holsteins over Guerseys, etc.)

I'll have to go double-check that now.

 

[NoZed Avenger]

Hmm.

A quick couple of searches has not revealed any info on my above point, so I'll have to put it out there without any more than a remembered conversation with my Dad, unless someone else knows something.

 

[fls]

Hmm.

A quick couple of searches has not revealed any info on my above point, so I'll have to put it out there without any more than a remembered conversation with my Dad, unless someone else knows something.

I have heard the same thing, but I can't offer much of anything except some remembered conversations with my mom. My grand-parents ran a dairy and they had Guernseys, not Holsteins - that would have been up to about 40 years ago.

But I can tell you about the milk we got from several of our Brown Swiss cows (I grew up on a farm (my parents got into the back-to-nature, Mother Earth News thing in the 70's) and we hand-milked a few cows for our own use). When we'd separate out the cream, we'd get about a pint of cream for each gallon of milk. The cream was so thick that it wouldn't pour when it was cold - like whipped cream, but not light and fluffy. And it would turn into butter within about 5 to 10 minutes of churning, as opposed to hours with more ordinary cream (guess which job my parents thought was a good one for the kids to do).

Linda

 

[Jorghnassen]

But fat is what makes milk good...

 

[Graybeard6]

As a youngster, I spent summers on my Uncle's farm. He had Jersey's and Guernsey's and sold his milk to Carnation for evaporated and condensed milk. He was paid by the gallon, plus a premium for butterfat content, which was 7-8%. The farm across the road had Holsteins, which produced twice the amount of milk, but ~3-4% butterfat.
Their monthly check were the same.

 

[NoZed Avenger]

I have heard the same thing, but I can't offer much of anything except some remembered conversations with my mom. My grand-parents ran a dairy and they had Guernseys, not Holsteins - that would have been up to about 40 years ago.

Aha. One anecdote is just a story -- but we have two, that makes *evidence*!!











Don't disillusion me.

 

[fls]

Aha. One anecdote is just a story -- but we have two, that makes *evidence*!!

On its way to becoming a "case series" and then a "cohort study".

Linda

 

[UserGoogol]

I wonder, does it taste as good as normal milk? I don't want to do without all that yummy fat.

But fat is what makes milk good...

You two are retarded. Whole milk is too creamy, and it leaves too much of an aftertaste. Skim milk is where it's at. Although of course, there's more to dairy than milk.

 

[casebro]

Butterfat content varies with the breed, location, weather, etc. Here in San Diego, the fresh milk is 14%, but the whole milk in the stores is 7%. The dairies skim it, and sell the fat for butter and cheese makers. So, lower fat producing cows will just shortchange the cheese makers. Plus Omega3 probably doesn't make good cheese. And oats will probaly remain a cheaper source anyways.

 

[Rolfe]

When I was a student back in the 1970s, I recall that the target butterfat content was 4%, and anything less than that was a pretty poor show. At the time, farmers were in the process of changing from Ayrshires to Friesian/Holsteins because of the yields of the latter, but also because the bull calves were less scrawny and could be successfully reared for beef.

The downside was that some farms were struggling to meet the 4% butterfat targets, and the story was that some of them were keeping a few Ayrshires in a back shed to bring the quality of the bulk milk up to scratch. Black-and-white Ayrshires being most prized for this, as at a distance they looked very like Friesians! However, by careful genetic selection (and I think some admixture of other breeds), the quality of Friesian milk improved substantially.

Channel Island and similar premium breeds were always higher, and you paid a premium price for that milk.

It's a novel concept to me, the idea of regressing and selecting for poorer butterfat content. I also get a good laugh from the supermarket labelling of ordinary milk as "96% fat-free"!

Rolfe.