salty milk

[Abbyview]

Ok people a quick brain teaser .. My Jersey recently delivered us a new calf and subsequently we started milking her about 1 week after that to allow the calf the colostrum. Cream is great as is the cheese and butter however the milk, even when full cream, is extremely salty. Why ?? I grew up on a dairy farm a million years ago and i dont remember ever having salty milk

Many thanks for any ideas

Toddy

[Shirley]

Hi Toddy

Welcome to Selfsufficient-ish.

I've just googled and come up with this

"Salty taste

Salty taste is caused by two conditions: mastitis and advanced lactation. The defect is rarely detected in pooled milks, because only a small proportion of cows would produce salty milk in a well-managed herd. Nevertheless, salty milk should be eliminated from the supply, because it is detrimental to milk quality.

Milk that has excellent flavor as produced may develop objectionable defects before it reaches the consumer. Recent changes in the dairy industry have caused changes in the flavor problems encountered. In the early days of the market milk industry, when sanitation practices were inadequate and relatively few refrigerators were available in homes, defects caused by bacteria, such as sour flavor, limited the time that milk remained usable. Today such bacterial defects are encountered less frequently because of modern sanitation practices, improved refrigeration and transportation facilities, and widespread adoption of pasteurization. Defects caused by chemical changes during storage such as oxidized and rancid flavors make up a larger percentage of observed defects than formerly. Milk as purchased is now more uniform in flavor and defective product is more likely to result in a complaint than in former years. Hence, processors must pay more attention to improving both the initial flavor and the flavor stability of milk during its expected usable life. "

: http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/dairyp/dairyp3_new.htm (For some reason this page appeared blank when I viewed it full screen - if this happens, try minimising your window a little)

Hope this helps.

[ina]

Hi Toddy, and welcome to the forum!

That's a strange case - must say I've never tried milk from a cow with mastitis (bit lumpy... ), so I couldn't say if it would taste salty... But since it's definitely not advanced lactation, and I'm sure you'd detect mastitis when milking (I assume you don't have a large number of cows), maybe it's some plant that the girl is eating? I've known milk getting very strong flavours (not necessarily salty, more bitter) when there was an excess of clover in the field, or dandelions.

[Abbyview]

Thanks people I appreciate your help. Advanced lactation is out, only calfed 3 weeks ago lol Mastitis....... perhaps.... I detected the classic signs of mastitis when we first started milkin in the off side rear quarter, lumps squggles etc. however after stripping the quarter for a week the milk came good, nice and smooth. obviously this was not the case and i am getting affected milk. To the Vet and its lots of happy up the teat injections for Caramel and milk for the dogs

[ina]

Do you just have the one cow - and do you handmilk her?

And another question as to the cheese making- do you use the Jersey milk fullfat for that, or do you cream it first? I once tried some Jersey cheese from fullfat milk, and it seemed almost too fatty - but maybe that was just that particular cheesemaker, and not the fact that it was made from Jersey milk...

[Abbyview]

Hi Ina,

yes we only have one cow that we hand milk once a day. Her calf takes the rest. We use the milk full fat for cheesemaking. We have only made mozzarella so far, seem to get more yeild with full fat milk.