7 - Effects of organic and conventional feeding regimes and husbandry methods on the quality of milk and dairy products

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the factors affecting the quality of milk that is produced for both the liquid and processing markets. These include the main quality parameters in the milk, including fatty acid composition, protein components, vitamins, somatic cell counts and their effect on the processing quality of the milk. The nutritional quality of milk is influenced by many factors and the inter-relationship between the type of management system, the quality of the diet, the breed of cow, and both the nutritional quality and the processing properties of milk is discussed in the chapter. The production of quality milk for liquid consumption and processing is dependent on achieving the optimal balance between the available feed sources for inclusion in the diet and the genetic potential and requirements of the cow, with the objective of continually producing quality milk throughout lactation. However, compared with both conventional intensive and low-input systems, where the composition of the diets is not restricted by the contribution of concentrates to the total ration, the organic standards for milk production require the feeding of high-forage diets with a minimum forage content of 60–90%. Therefore, there is less flexibility when organic diets are formulated and the quality of the diets is dependent on producing high-quality forage that meets a major part of the cow's nutrient requirements, particularly during the critical early and mid-lactation periods.