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American cheesemakers fear milk that is too fatty
The American dairy industry has increased the fat content of cow's milk at a record pace over the past 10 years, far more than dairy farmers in the EU and New Zealand. However, the rapidly growing American cheese industry is not happy about this, as the fat/protein ratio is becoming unbalanced, causing production problems.
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This was reported by the American cooperative CoBank in a report about this development. The ideal fat/protein ratio for Cheddar production is one where the protein percentage is 80 to 83% of the fat percentage. In recent years, however, this ratio has become increasingly skewed, and according to the bank, the protein percentage now amounts to only 77% of the fat percentage.
This is due to a successful livestock improvement program within the Holstein breed, which dominates the US. As a result, the fat percentage in milk has increased by 13% over the past 10 years, while the protein percentage has only increased by 6%. Breeding primarily for fat has also paid off. Currently, the average fat percentages in the US are 4,24% and 3,29% protein.
Too soft cheese
American cheese producers are finding it increasingly difficult to manage such ratios. The industry complains that with such fat-to-protein ratios, the cheese risks becoming too soft. Therefore, they must implement an additional processing step: either skim the incoming milk or add protein concentrate. In both cases, this means additional costs, which erode margins.
Pay differently
A solution to this problem would be to adjust the remuneration for delivered milk, so that farmers would breed more cows with milk suitable for cheese production. And that has a bright future. According to CoBank, American cheese sales have grown by about 15% in the last 10 years. However, breeding for a high fat content remains attractive for many farmers, as the consumption of (full-fat) yogurt and butter has also increased significantly.
Compared to the Dutch standard values for cow's milk—4,42% fat and 3,58% protein—the American values don't seem particularly high, but compared to the European average of 4,13% fat and 3,45% protein, they're not too bad. Moreover, they've risen much more sharply than the European averages, and even more than the New Zealand averages. However, those have long been at record highs, currently at 5,14% for fat and 4,02% for protein.