State for lower fat content in milk

The State government’s move to seek a dilution of food product standards to suit the lower fat content of milk produced in the State has met with scepticism from a section of experts who feel that the milk fat issue should have been addressed by improving the quality of cattle feed. While dairy development experts feel that the lower fat content of milk is the result of the cattle breeding policy focussing on crossbreeds selected for their high yield, livestock scientists believe that the problem has more to do with the decline in the content of roughage in cattle feed.
The government is seeking an amendment to the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 to lower the prescribed fat content of cow’s milk in Kerala from 3.5 per cent to 3 per cent. While most States have a prescribed limit of 3.5, the food product standards mandate a content of four per cent for Chandigarh, Haryana, and Punjab and three per cent for Mizoram and Odisha.
Last week, the government circulated a note among Members of Parliament from Kerala, asking them to highlight the State’s demand to lower the food product standards for milk.
According to the latest estimates, more than 90 per cent of milch cows in Kerala are crossbred. Scientists point out that cows supplied with adequate high fibre roughage like hay and fodder, as those in the government farms in the State, produce milk with fat up to 4.2 per cent, unlike animals fed with concentrated feed.
The rumen (stomach chamber) of a cow on a high roughage diet produces acetic acid, a precursor for mammalian milk fat. Animals fed with concentrated feed release lactic acid instead, resulting in lower fat content.
The ideal ratio of roughage and concentrated feed is 60:40 but most dairy farmers in Kerala, especially those in urban areas, depend on compounded feed. “While the steady fall in paddy production has affected the availability of hay, the scarcity of land has led to a decline in the supply of fodder, with the result that farmers are increasingly forced to depend on concentrated feed. This has impacted on the fat content of milk produced in Kerala,” says a dairy management expert.
Farmers are deterred by the higher price tag for total mixed ration feed, a combination of high fibre roughage and concentrated feed is a deterrent for dairy farmers. Meanwhile, the government is understood to be drafting a Bill prescribing standards for cattle feed.