The color of butter?

[cheddar]

I am wondering if anyone out there is familiar with Sally Fallon and her theories on CLA's? I have heard mentioned that Dexter's cream produces butter which is white in color. Any thoughts on whether this means their butter is lower in CLA's, as it seems the yellow color is an indicator in the amount of CLA's in the butter?

[hoperefuge]

I am not familiar with SF's theories, but I will try to answer & hope it makes sense.  Saying that the yellow color is an indicator of CLA levels is probably over-simplified & not entirely accurate.

CLA levels in milk & beef are affected by grass vs. grain.  100% grass-fed will have the highest possible CLA level.  As little as 5lbs (I believe, if I remember right) of grain per day will start decreasing the CLA level.  When you get into a primarily grain-based diet (like industrial, feed-lot situations) the CLA level drops to almost nothing.

A green diet (fresh pasture) WILL affect the color of milk (and fat in the beef).  The "green" converts into beta carotene & then to vitamin A, and will produce a yellow color.  I will notice a difference even with the change from hay in the winter to fresh grass in the spring.  The thing is, some breeds, and even different individuals, accomplish that conversion to varying degrees.  Jerseys & Guernseys, who are known for their yellow cream, do not convert the whole way to vitamin A very well.  Their conversion stops at beta carotene...hence the very yellow color.  Most Dexters do have whiter milk, so I would assume they convert more efficiently the whole way to vitamin A, not leaving much beta carotene to produce a yellow color.  So you could have a Jersey & a Dexter on the exact same grass diet & their milk would look quite different.  But the CLA levels should still be similar.

Does that make sense?

Kim

[cheddar]

Thanks Kim for your input. I think that the efficiency of the Dexters in conversion of grass to energy etc., is what makes their milk/cream whiter. While the CLA levels "should be" similar on equal diets I wonder if they are, or are they being more efficiently utilized by the cow and not coming through in her milk?

[hoperefuge]

With the CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), it isn't about CLA being utilized by the cow.  The cow is synthesizing/producing CLA from her feed.  CLA is not found in grass, grass is high in omega-3's, and omega-3's are what the cow uses to synthesize CLA.  Grain is high in omega-6's with almost no omega-3's, which is why grain lowers the CLA levels.  It's a totally different & separate process from the carotenoid/color one.

And if you want to look at feed efficiency, it would seem that the more efficient cow would be able to produce HIGHER levels of CLA out of the same diet, wouldn't it?  Isn't that what efficiency boils down to...getting more out of less?

Kim

[zephyrhillsusan]

Thanks for the informative answers, hoperefuge!

[hoperefuge]

Well, you're welcome zephyrhillsusan!

And, I guess to clarify a bit...I don't really think it's a feed efficiency issue.  Feed efficiency is about the cow being able to gain, maintain & produce without eating you out of house & home.  You don't hear it talked about as affecting the nutrition of the final product (beef or milk).  Some cows may be able to gain & maintain condition on my chosen diet for them, but they do it by eating twice as much as the others, so are not feed efficient.  The efficient cow can do it on a moderate amount of feed.  But as far as I know, you end up with a nutritionally similar final product.

So, in direct answer to the original question, "does the white color mean Dexter's butter is lower in CLA", I say, no, not necessarily.  The CLA level will be determined solely by the "green to grain" ratio in the cow's diet.  But just because a cow's cream/butter is fairly white does NOT mean she's not eating green pasture.

Kim

[zephyrhillsusan]

I've heard other people say that Dexter milk and butter tends to be very white compared to that of other breeds; this is people who milk several breeds. Never having had any cattle other than Dexters, I can't say one way or another. I did notice a great difference when I made butter from Siobhan in the winter and butter from Ebony in the spring. Ebby's butter was much more yellow. However, unless I was milking both at the same time and making two batches of cream at the same time, I wouldn't care to draw a conclusion as to whether it was a difference in feed vs. something unique to the animal or a combination of both. The only thing we could measure was taste--and both were delicious!

[hoperefuge]

Exactly, Susan.  But you can see the difference the diet makes by making butter from the SAME cow in winter & in spring (if you can manage to save some of the winter butter to compare!  ).

It's definitely all delicious!!

Kim

[kansasdexters]

There has been a significant amount of research done on fat color that develops under different feeding regimes. Here is a good reference article on the subject:

www.csuchico.edu/grassfedbeef/research/documents/Dunne%20Ireland%202008.pdf

[hoperefuge]

Good article kansasdexters, thanks!

cheddar if you don't have time to read the whole thing, section 7 addresses your question fairly well.  And as zephyrhillsusan pointed out, though people say Dexter milk/butter is "white" compared to Jersey or other breeds, it's not really, truly white if they're on grass.  There IS yellow color there, it's just paler...merely a difference between the breeds & how they process the carotenoids.

Kim

[zephyrhillsusan]

Thank you for the article, kansasdexters . I put a link to it in the Dexter Articles and Links on my blog. I noticed that the abstract said some people don't like the yellow fat color and they've researched ways to decrease it. It's odd how hard it is for people to change ingrained ideas--fat is white, egg yolks are pale yellow, etc. I sold eggs to friends at church for a while, and one lady said she couldn't use them up because her husband said yolks shouldn't be orange--they should be pale yellow. 

[cheddar]

And during the depression they added food coloring to the butter replacement to make it more yellow. I have a lady who loves the taste of my duck eggs but will not eat them because the yolks are too big and yellow. Go figure. Great article kansasdexters. Thanks for the input all.