Demands to future milk

Transcription

1 Demands to future milk - And to milk analyses At the annual two day conference for dairy farmers arranged by the Knowledge center for Agriculture, Cattle one of the presentations focused on the expected demands to future milk. How can milk producers enhance the value of the milk they produce, by breeding or feeding differently, - and how can the dairies increase the value by treating the milk differently? The session was split in three. Director Grith Mortensen, Arla Foods described the mega trends within milk consumption. Researcher Lotte B Larsen, University of Aarhus described how some milk from some cows is much better than milk from other cows for cheese production, mainly due to differences in the protein fraction. At the end Mikka S Hansen, from Arla Foods explained how the value of the protein fraction in milk today not only is determined by the abilities for cheese production. More and more products are produced, many based on various powder fractions, and the value of some of these may prove to be very competitive to traditional cheese production! Page 1 of 5

2 The mega trends. It is well known that the significant increase in milk consumption these years is seen in Asia, South America and Africa, areas where the present milk production is limited. In these markets an increasing share of middle class citizens can afford now to buy milk products and sometimes their confidence in locally produced products is limited. Therefore, naturally, Arla intends to increase their sale of milk products in these growth markets, realizing that when the milk quotas disappear the overall milk production and the overall competition in Europe will increase. Other important trends are that focus on food safety is increasing. A number of food scandals, some involving milk products have been highlighted during the last 5-10 years. This together with an increased focus on nutrition and health increases the need for developing products for the home market as well as for the growth markets which are, and are proven to be, healthy and safe to eat. In addition the products to the growth markets must be easy to transport worldwide. This, according to Grith Mortensen, means that focus at all times must be on food safety, - and that Arla farmers must submit to the Arla farm principles Closer to nature. The existing product categories will continue to be there for the existing markets, but new product categories will emerge due to changes in the consumer needs over time (like more protein and less fat in products). Beside this new products and ingredients will be developed for the emerging markets which fit the needs for these markets and the logistics better. Demand from the markets and thereby prices paid by the final consumers will determine the split. Milk from some cows is better suited for cheese production! Page 2 of 5

3 It is well known that the suitability of milk for cheese production is not uniform no matter which cow or which race we deal with! Lotte B Larsen referred to a Danish research project revealing that the ability to coagulate differs significantly and for instance 20% of all Holstein cows produce milk with low ability to coagulate, - and 2 % produce milk which cannot coagulate at all! Many parameters influence the ability to coagulate but Ability to coagulate for milk from Danish Holstein according to Lotte B Larsen some of the main parameters sit in the protein fraction! And the best way to influence this parameter is by breeding for it. So milk genomics is in focus and work is carried out to determine to which extend FTIR analyses can reveal coagulation properties. With a production of tons of cheese in Denmark per year the potential benefit is significant if a higher and more uniform share of the milk can be turned into cheese at the dairy plants! This said, also the whey fraction which remains after cheese production, show new possibilities. A number of specific proteins, some used in infant formulas are becoming an increasing business to Arla and other dairies. Mikka S Hansen explained how part of the milk fraction which is not used for cheese, alfa lact albumin, makes up approximately 50 % of human milk, which makes alfa lact albumin an important ingredient when producing infant formula from natural sources instead of trans Protein composition of cows milk and human milk genetic cows. So whatever component of the protein fraction is increased it is of big value to the dairy and thereby to it s owners the farmers. How to achieve the goal, - more and more uniform content of milk components? Production of some of the above mentioned valuable components can be increased by breeding for them, some by feeding differently. Page 3 of 5

4 But in order to monitor the changed feeding or the new breeding program it is essential that quick and reliable analyses for the parameters in question are available. And it is obvious that if these analyses can be made on milk from the single cow it is ideal! Today a research cooperation between University of Aarhus in Denmark, Swedish University of Agriculture, the Scandinavian breeding organization Viking Genetics and Arla Foods is looking into ways to achieve this goal. Page 4 of 5

5 Page 5 of 5