The impacts of a typical dairy cow crossbreeding strategy on Cheddar cheesemaking efficiency, nutrition and quality

Crossbreeding can be utilised in animal husbandry to increase genetic diversity and improve health and fertility in the next generation. In dairy herd management, a common strategy involves crossbreeding Jersey (JE) cows with Holstein-Friesians (HF), resulting in Jersey-Holstein-Friesian (JFX) progeny. This study investigated the impact of these genotypes on processing efficiency and product quality within Cheddar manufacturing. Raw JFX cows’ milk had significantly higher protein (+5.68%) and fat (+13.20%) than HF cows, but no significant differences in coagulation properties or cheese yield resulted. All cheese manufactured had macro-compositions within the range of expected values for Cheddar, with no meaningful differences in texture, proteolysis, pH, volatile organic compounds and fat profile. From a due-diligence perspective, it was not evident from any of the analyses performed that JFX phenotypes cause practical negative impacts to the cheesemaking ability of milk or adversely influence final cheese quality. Furthermore, cheese derived from JFX milk was more yellow in colour, with significantly higher b* values, which is indicative of preferable sensory and nutritional quality.