Read the full report: Distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are not to blame for low-quality Baby Swiss cheese
About this report:
Late-blowing in Swiss cheese (which can be described as an appearance of undesirable slits, cracks, splits or blown areas in the cheese), is a result of unwanted gas production. This is unacceptable to consumers, and causes economic loss to manufacturers. Previous work has raised concerns that feeding dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) to cows leads to this defect. This research took 30 healthy multiparous and mid-lactation Holstein cows were fed total mixed ration containing DDGS (0, 10 and 20%; 10 cows per treatment group) by dietary dry matter (DM) in a 3 × 3 Latin square design. One complete milking from all cows within a treatment was collected and pooled for baby Swiss cheese, twice within each month of the three-month study. Additionally, individual milk samples from three milkings of a day were collected weekly for proximate analysis.
Conclusions:
Although feeding cows diets with DDGS modified milk composition, and subsequently cheese composition, DDGS was not a source for gas producing spores or for quality defects in Swiss cheese. Rather, the gas-producing spores likely originate from environment or the cow herself.
Project outcomes:
This project shows that feeding DDGS does not cause defects in Swiss cheese; and can be utilized by ethanol and dairy producers when making decisions about their feed rations.
Partners:
Midwest Dairy Association, Minnesota Corn Research & Promotion Council
