QUALITY OF MILK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18585, 18 December 1923, Page 14

QUALITY OF MILK.

COLOUR NOT A test.

The belief that a bright yellow colour in milk means richness in quality is held fairly generally, especially among town dwellers; but ail the same it is not true, for experiments conducted at the Missouri University's College of Agriculture four or five years ago, • and since proved at other laboratories, show that the change from the white cream and butter in winter to yellow cream and butter in spring and summer does not indicate an increased fat percentage. The very highest coloured milk that a cow can give may have the lowest fat percentage. Such condition is found in the so-called colustrum milk, the first milk that a cow gives after giving birth to a calf. The yellow colouring matter of milk was found to be identical with a yellow colouring matter that is widely distributed in plants and fresh grass. This colouring matter is called carotin. It takes its name from the carrot, where it is very abundant, and where it was first discovered by scientists more than one hundred years ago. The difference in the colour of cream and butter in winter and spring was found to be due to the fact that the winter feeds contain little or no carotin.' No marked increase in the fat percentage accompanies the increase in colour when foods rich in carotin are fed. It has been shown that the average cow gives a higher percentage of fat in its milk during the winter than in the spring and summer.