The influence of the addition of herbs to the winter diet of sheep on the yield of bundz rennet cheese and its nutritional value

Abstract

The study was carried out on samples of raw sheep milk and bundz rennet cheese produced from it. The milk was obtained from ewes of the coloured variety of Polish Merino, from February to April, housed indoors and fed with preserved bulky feed and a mixture of concentrate feeds. Three groups were formed for the experiment: group I – control, fed without the addition of herbs to the concentrate feed, and groups II and III, in which an herb mixture was added to the concentrate feed in the amount of 10 and 20 g/sheep/day, respectively. Six experimental batches of bundz rennet cheese were made from the sheep milk, and the effect of the addition of herbs to the sheep diet on the chemical composition of the raw milk used to make cheese, the cheese yield and its nutritional value was analysed. The results showed that the use of herbal supplements in the feed of the coloured variety of Polish Merino sheep in winter had no effect on the chemical composition of the raw milk, and thus its value for processing, expressed as the yield of bundz rennet cheese. The addition of herbs in the amount of 20 g/sheep/day to the diet of sheep significantly increased the content of minerals in cheese made from the milk obtained from the group III sheep, by 6.1% and 6.6% as compared to groups I and II, respectively (P≤0.05). The experimental factor had no influence on the other parameters of the nutritional value of the cheese, i.e. on the content of protein and fat or their mutual proportions, or on its energy value.