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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 November 2017
The extension of the milk quota system to include milk fat as well as milk yield has focussed attention on the control of milk composition by dietary means. For example, when dairy farmers are faced with the need to reduce milk yields to stay within quota they may choose to reduce the herd's intake of concentrates. If they do this they run the risk of increasing the weighted average milk fat concentration of their annual milk supply to a level at which, according to current regulations, they are deemed to have produced a greater volume of milk. Additionally, in the long term an ability to reduce the fat content of milk in a predictable manner in response to the increasing demand for low-fat products might become beneficial. The characteristics of a cow's diet that would enable such predictions to be made with adequate precision need to be identified.