Mineral and fatty acid composition of milk from native Jutland and Danish Red 1970 cattle breeds

ABSTRACT

Mineral and fatty acid composition in milk from two minor native dairy breeds in Denmark; Danish Red 1970 (RDM-1970) and Jutland cows were analyzed. Results showed that for most compositional traits breed only played a minor role, whereas management and feeding played a significant role. Biodynamic management and very low milk yield resulted in a very characteristic fatty acid composition and a strongly elevated n-3/n-6 ratio (ratio 0.9 compared to 0.3). For milk minerals, RDM-1970 had significantly higher contents of P, Mg, Mn, whereas milk from Jutland cows had significantly higher K content.

KEYWORDS:

• Native breeds
• fatty acid
• elements
• dairy products

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank The Danish Agrifish Agency (Copenhagen K, Denmark) and Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark) for financial support as well as the project SOBcows (Organic RDD2). The SOBcows project has received grants from the Green Growth and Development Program (GUDP) under the Danish Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries (Copenhagen K, Denmark). Further, farmers providing milk for the projects are also thanked for the collaboration.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.