Quality Goat Milk for Cheese Production / Kvalitetsmjølk for kvit geitost

The pattern of consumption of goat milk in Norway is currently changing, and consumers are more inclined to cheese than whey products (brown cheese). This calls for an improvement of overall quality and especially of flavour and rennet coagulation propert ies of the milk. The present project will establish quality measures that may be used for feeding advice and breeding for improved milk quality. A joint effort by dairy, breeding, animal nutrition and plant production scientists in collaboration with the farmers and dairies is the best way to achieve these goals. Casein genes affect milk quality, and methods to include such information in addition to new quality measures in breeding will be elaborated. Applications of multivariate analysis to several qua lity measures and to the spectra routinely analyzed to find goat milk content are proposed to find new rapid and cheap tools for milk improvement. Feeding and grazing strategies to optimise and stabilise milk quality will be identified. We will build new competence in: important parameters for assessing milk quality for cheese production, breeding for milk quality, appropriate nutrition for optimal milk quality, and in the field of plant quality for goat nutrition.