The influence of storage on the farm and in dairy silos on milk quality for cheese production

Refrigerated storage of good-quality milk from a single cow resulted in moderate deterioration of its quality, low level of bacterial growth (standard plate and psychrotroph counts), and low small losses of curd yield. When milk was collected from farm bulk milk tanks and from dairy silos, its quality deteriorated faster than that of single-cow milk, resulting in high bacteria counts and high loss of curd yield, most of which was already apparent for the farm bulk milk tank. Statistical analyses did not reveal any significant interaction between bacterial growth, milk composition, somatic cell count, and curd yield loss, indicating that other mechanisms such as enzymatic activity might be responsible. From the comparison between the high-quality milk from an uninfected cow's udder and the commingled milk on the farm and in the dairy silos, it appears that introduction of milk coming from infected udders might cause curd yield loss such as that noted in the present study.