Assessment of the Quality and Suitability of Dairy Products for Production of Hard Cheese

Abstract

Some aspects of feeding dairy cows and factors affecting the production of high-quality milk suitable for the production of cheeses are considered, in particular, the study of the possibility of full or partial replacement of corn silage with silage from one-year forage crops in the rations. The study was conducted on cows of the Ukrainian black and spotted dairy breed using the method of periods. In the first period (duration 36 days), in addition to the main diet, the animals were fed 25 kg of corn silage, in the second (29 days) - 17 kg of hay from one-year forage crops, and in the third (35 days) - 12 kg of corn silage + 10 kg hay one-year forage crops. The main ration consisted of cereal and legume hay, winter wheat straw, fodder beets, a mixture of grain concentrates and premix. Density, content of dry matter, fat, total protein and casein and its fractional composition, lactose, degree of bacterial contamination, coagulation time of milk under the action of rennet enzyme were determined in milk.
 At the end of each period, batches of cheese were produced, the acidity, content of dry matter, fat, protein, degree of maturity were determined in the samples, and their expert evaluation was carried out. Since for the production of high-quality cheeses, milk must meet certain organoleptic parameters, chemical composition, bacterial contamination, the article provides requirements for its quality, as well as recommended rations and composition of premixes. It has been established that for feeding cows in cheese-making areas during the stall period, it is possible to recommend partial or complete replacement of corn silage (as it contains little calcium, which causes slow rennet coagulation of milk) with hay from one-year forage crops, which will lead to improvement of the technological properties of milk (reduction of time coagulation with rennet enzyme for 4-5 minutes, increasing the yield of mature cheese by 7-8%) and will contribute to increasing the casein content in cheese (by 0.12-0.15%), k-fraction of casein (by 1.6-2.1%) and calcium, which are he main indicators of milk suitability for cheese production.