The milk produced by dairy cows reflects the nutrition that the cow is exposed to. Higher quality milks are produced by higher quality diets. Dairy cow’s are generally fed grass, and this grass can vary in its nutritional content. One of the biggest determinants of this variation is the season in which the grass is grown, with winter grass generally having a different profile to summer grass. Studies have analysed the effects of seasonality on grass and how this affects the milk of dairy cows. In general, summer grass produces a higher fat milk compared to winter grass, and this includes high concentrations of certain important fatty acids such as alpha linolenic acid (ALA, C18:3 (n-3)) and cis-9, trans-11 conjugated linoleic, as well as lower concentrations of some of the nutritionally less important fatty acids such as palmitic acid and myristic acid. Therefore summer grass may improve the nutritional content of milk and butter and this may have consequences for those that consume dairy products as part of their healthy diet.
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