Influence of extensive grazing on cheese composition, yield and fatty acids content of goats

J. Tasi, F. Pajor, O. Steiber

Abstract: The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of extensive grazing on the composition, yield and fatty acids content of goat cheese. Twenty lactating Hungarian Native goats were randomly allocated to two treatment groups. The goats in the first group were kept indoors and fed with alfalfa hay; the goats in the second group were kept on a natural pasture. Utilization of native pasture has been extensive level in order to avoid over-grazing of the grassland. The stocking density of the pastures grazed by the goat was about 0.5 AU/ha. The cheese from grazed goats had significantly higher fat (15.50 vs. 21.50 g/100g cheese; P<0.01) and protein (20.58 vs. 22.57 g/100g cheese; P<0.05) composition and cheese yield (10 % vs. 11 %; P<0.01) than goats kept indoors. Grazing significantly increased the rumenic acid (66.45 vs. 156.95 mg/100g cheese; P<0.001) and n-3 fatty acids (99.28 vs. 233.48 mg/100g cheese; P<0.01) contents in cheese. In this study, n-6/n-3 ratio of 4.31 and 2.48 were found for cheese samples of goats that fed indoor and grass, respectively. It is concluded that nutritional quality of cheeses from goats kept on the natural pasture are more advantageous in human nutrition.

Keywords: cheese; extensive grazing; fatty acids; goat

Date published: 2019-07-23