Quantification of the Effect of the Cattle Breed on Milk Cheese Yield: Comparison between Italian Brown Swiss and Italian Friesian

Simple Summary It is well known that cattle breeds can produce milk with significant differences in casein and fat contents that are reflected in higher or lower cheese yields. However, the different cheese-yielding ability also involves some particular breed-related molecular characteristics that are not yet considered in milk quality payment systems, due to difficulties in their measurement. The aim of this research was to propose a method for the comprehensive quantification of the effect of milk characteristics on the cheese-making efficiency, including those connected to molecular peculiarities, in terms of casein units. In particular, the method was applied to Parmigiano Reggiano cheese by comparing two different cattle breeds, Italian Friesian and Italian Brown. Under the same processing conditions, the cheese-making efficiency of Italian Brown was higher than that of Italian Friesian. The study concluded that the added value of Italian Brown milk can be expressed in terms of +0.20 g/100 g casein. The method developed could be easily used at the dairy farm level. Milk from different cattle breeds can present different casein and fat contents, which are reflected in different cheese yields (CY). However, CY is also related to some breed-related molecular characteristics. The aim of the present work was to quantify the effect of these characteristics by comparing a series of Parmigiano Reggiano (PR) cheese-making trials made with milks from Italian Brown (IB) and Italian Friesian (IF) cattle herds. Twelve trials were carried out in a cheese factory in one year (one trial per month), each one consisting of four vats processed in parallel: three vats contained milk from three different IF cattle herds (IF1, IF2 and IF3) and one contained milk from a single IB cattle herd. A 24-h CY prediction formula was developed with data from IF1, IF2 and IF3 trials (calibration) and successively validated by applying it to 12 PR trials made with IF milk in six different cheese factories (external validation). The predicted values of 24-h CY were no different to the actual ones in both calibration and external validation. Finally, the formula was tested on trials made with IB milk. In this case, the predicted values were lower than the actual ones. The quantity of IF milk casein necessary to give the same CY of IB milk was 0.20 g/100 g.