As I was eating my breakfast I noticed on the gal of milk it says 3.5% milk fat. Where does the milk fat come from. Does it come from the grains & proteins in the hay that cows are fed or is it determined by the breed of cows. What is normal milk fat & what is min & max. If max exceeds 3.5% how is it reduced to lower levels such as 2% or even skim milk. Thanks Gerald
- Thread starter gmccool
- Start date
Fat content in cows milk is determined by breed and by diet....a high fibre diet like hay will give a higher milk fat. Jersey breeds usually have fat content higher than 5 percent whereas larger breeds like Holsteins usually run about 3.5 or 4 percent. Milk is separated at the processing plant into skim, 1,2, or 3.5 percent fat and the separated fat is used in butter cheese and other dairy products. Still nature's most nearly perfect food!
Ben
Ben
big tee
Well-known Member
When I was a kid we had a neighbor that had all Jerseys except for one Holstein--Someone asked why he had a Holstein--He replied that he used the Holstein milk to wash the milkers---Tee
Spent many, many hours luging these Surge milkers around--My Dad worked days in town so us kids took our turns over the years...
waynesteuck
Member
O h Ya what fun they where ! , How about the cow tail in the face !! had that happen a few times !!
Wayne
Hated the new younger cows , like to kick
a little
Wayne
Hated the new younger cows , like to kick
a little
Olliejunkie
Well-known Member
Never had cows. Mom and dad had goats for awhile before goat milk was a fad. We use to go to the neighbor's and get a gallon of milk in a glass jar. If I remember right they sold it with the fat still on it or skimmed off. Mom brought the fat home and made butter once or twice that I remember.
Never thought of the Holstien milk as a wash. But it is thinner. Now people don't know about the milk processing plant. Most of them make fruit drinks from concentrate. Now, to clean the pipes in the plant they run some orange juice concentrate through the plant pipes. Clean as a whistle. Vitamin "C" is citric acid. Bet they sell it as calcium fortified. 
Pete in MD
Well-known Member
- Location
- Central Maryland
Ben,
Nowadays I think they skim all the milk and then blend back butter fat to make whatever quantity of 1, 2, or 3.5% milk they need for the day's production requirements.
Nowadays I think they skim all the milk and then blend back butter fat to make whatever quantity of 1, 2, or 3.5% milk they need for the day's production requirements.
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
I milked with Surge bucket milkers for the first 7 years I farmed, and cleaned out the 30 Holstein cows with a wheel barrow.
Bruce from Can.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Woodville, Ontario, Canada
Pete in MD has it correct, the fat is skimmed, then the % is added back to make the final product and homogenized so that won?t separate again. Or Jersey herd is currently producing 5.3% butter fat milk with 4% protein. I love the flavour of high fat milk. Bruce
Gmccool, very good question. If you live in a non-rural area, for laughs ask 10 people how much fat is in whole milk (sold at the store, not straight from the cow). You will get answers all over the board from maybe 20% to 100%. (if milk is over 18% fat, it is considered cream) As you pointed out, you have noticed your whole milk is 3.5%. So the 2% lowfat milk they sell has 1.5 percentage points less fat or 43% less fat in it than 3.5% whole milk. A dairyman from Pennsylvania recently set up a website, 97milk.com to try to educate people about this. The 97 is basically derived from 97% fat free (100% - 3.5%).
coonie minnie
Well-known Member
As a dairy farmer, thanks for having milk on your cereal! And whole milk, as you are drinking is the best tasting and helps us the most. Thanks for your support!
I remember the joke from years ago where the Holstein dairy farmer said to the Jersey farmer that you could milk the Jersey all day long and never get enough milk to cover a silver dollar. Then the Jersey farmer said to the Holstein farmer that you could milk the Holstein and get a full bucket of milk and still read in god we trust written on the coin.
Steven
Steven
Ibleedorange
New User
What I don t understand is how buttermilk these days is 1% butterfat. Seems more like homogenized clabbered milk to me. I remember buttermilk with chunks of butter floating in the milk. A cold glass of buttermilk with cornbread and some green onions to taste was a regular after supper treat growing up. I hate not being able to buy Real buttermilk anymore.
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