Scientists breed skim milk-producing cow

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Scientists in New Zealand have successfully bred a cow that produces skim milk and the firm behind the process said herds of the animals are on the horizon.

"company learned the animal could pass the trait onto its offspring"

That's pretty cool, should prove to be boom for certain markets.

Originally posted by a1ex
Umm how long until this milk makes it's way into baby products?

Probably when the cows are produced in large enough numbers, and the baby companies
decide to try using it.

Hmmm... I wonder where this is going... Low fat milk? No fat milk? Ooo. I got one: Chocolate flavoured milk.

But on a bit more serious note... Isn't this a bit of a step back? They're able to make skimmed milk for the "health conscious" people (whoever these people may be...), but the end result was cream, which was used for other products... Won't this lead to a shortage in cream? Or are they going to "make" cows with a "higher cream content" to make up for the loss?

How long? A couple of years I guess, considering its a cow and not a bull that carries the trait, they first have to bread plenty of new cows to build a population with.

If they are lucky and the first calf is a bull and they find it also carries on the trait to its offspring, they can furtilize about as much other cows with the bulls sperm as they want to and bring a large population of these cows in production within the next few years.

If a bull calf doesn't forward this trait to its offspring, they'll have to continue breeding with the original cow and its female offspring and it'll take at least a decade to get a decent and production viable population going.


Gemwolf: well, the milk isn't just low fat but also has alot of omega3 oils and much more chloresterol (sp?) friendly fats, which are things equily valuable to cream being an excess product.

The money they can make from selling high priced chloresterol friendly, omega3 rich, naturaly low fat milk without needing extra processing facilities is much more profitable then getting rid of an excess product.

[edit on 28/5/07 by thematrix]

Originally posted by a1ex

Umm how long until this milk makes it's way into baby products?

I hope it doesn't! You shouldn't give a baby any milk until they're at least 1yr old and then it really does have to be full fat, not this watery semi-skimmed nonsense.

The only milk I drink is full fat. Tastes better in my tea and on my Honey Nut loops.

Good find by the company though. I can see there being a demand for it.

Originally posted by thematrix
Gemwolf: well, the milk isn't just low fat but also has alot of omega3 oils and much more chloresterol (sp?) friendly fats, which are things equily valuable to cream being an excess product.

The money they can make from selling high priced chloresterol friendly, omega3 rich, naturaly low fat milk without needing extra processing facilities is much more profitable then getting rid of an excess product.

[edit on 28/5/07 by thematrix]

Yes, there sure is profit in selling "extra healthy" milk, but the fact is they still need the "excess product", i.e. cream for dairy products like fresh cream, sour cream, some ice creams, butter, etc. The question is if farmers are going to start mass-producing "low fat" (low cream) milk (well using the cows) instead of having to mechanically skim the milk, won't this create a shortage for the rest of the market that relies on the cream that is produced by the skimming process?

Only people that want health food and people that need it for medical reasons will buy it.

Not to mention that if you read the article you see a specific company found and researched the cow. They will patent this or guard the genetic makeup and offspring of this cow and keep/limit production, so that its nominal for maximized profit.

If it was just a farmer finding this, then if he wasn't a smart one, he would maybe spread it freely, but if a normal farmer was smart enough to find out this specific cows milk was special and that the offspring would carry the same genetic trait, he would probably exploit it just the same as this company will do.

Not everyone can produce this milk and they can't "milk the cow" for all its worth if they release the "technology", they'll keep it inhouse or pantented as a close guarded secret, like pharmaceutical companies do.

With health foods its always the same, someone patents it and keeps the supply limited to keep the prices up.

Same goes with the special brands of butter and cheeses specifically made for people who need chloresterol lowering or stabilizing nutrients, usualy made with plant oils rather then animal fats.