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[moo moo]
[moo moo]
- For generations of school children, milk has been an important part of the daily diet.
[claps]
- [children] Yehey.
- Doctors and nutritionists regard it as a healthy and nutritious food that helps
keep children fit and active. It's pure, it's natural and we all know where it
comes from, right?
[moo moo]
- Hi, we're making a film about milk. Can I ask you sir a question?
- Yes.
- What the cows eat? - Grass.
- What do cows eat?
- Oooh, grass.
- Grass.
- Grass.
- Yeah, what do cows eat? - Oooh I love milk.
- What the cows eat?
- Grass, aaah, ay.
- Mainly grass.
- You'd like to think so.
[laughs] - Oh, really?
- I'm Liz Earle and I've spent all my working life writing about health and beauty. And
the one thing I've learned is how vital good food is to the way we look and feel.
I've recently become a farmer. We bought a derelict dairy farm and converted it to
organic pasture. As I've always thought it best to rear animals in what they eat
naturally. Grass. We started with sheep and these are our hereford beef cattle.
And now we're thinking about taking the plunge into dairy. But I've been quite shocked
to discover just how few cows are eating that much grass. I'd like to find out why
and how it's affecting the milk that every family's drinking.
[moo moo]
- I'm meeting Amanda Ball, head of marketing at DairyCo, public face of the
UK dairy industry. She shows me a modern, high yield, dairy farm. A feed hopper
grinds in the corner of the yard and looking on are hundreds of cows in sheds.
- On the vast majority of british dairy farms, cows are housed for part of the year
and for part of the year they're out to grass. On this particular farm and in other
farms like this up and down the country, the cows are housed all year round.
- So, what are they fed in if they're not eating the grass?
- Yes, well, they do eat conserved grass but it's what we call a total mixed ration.
- Okay, so, what is this?
- What were looking at here is a combination of conserved forages that you
might even be able to pick out, there's grass in there, there's maize in there and that's
combined with cereal crops to provide carbohydrate and starch, things like
wheat. And also there'll be some lovely protein in there, so things like
uh rapeseed meal. And then that's complimented by all the essential
vitamins and minerals that also go into the TMR ration.
- So how much of that would be grass itself?
- Anywhere from 15% upwards but it really depends on a farm by farm basis.
- And soya is that added?
- Yeah, protein crops such as soya are included, yeah.
- So is that GM soya?
- Um, as far as the debate around GM goes then there, currently yes, there could be soya
that could be sourced from crops that are from GM in other countries, yeah.
- Okay. Now, what about the nutritional value of milk that's produced with cows
eating TMR compared to just grass, what's your opinion on that?
- Yeah, I think the important thing is to make sure that their nutritional needs
are met. If you just fed a cow in grass then she would be able to fulfill the needing
maintenance but not as a milk producing cow. And that all the cow ate was grass,
then essentially the production from the
milking cow would not be economically viable. So--
- We'll that wasn't really the question I asked. Amanda's point maybe true of cows
like those in this farm that have been especially bred to produce high yields.
But some farmers take a very different approach. Tom Malleson farms 400
Jersey/Friesian cross cows in Dorset.
- This Jersey cross type of cow, well, they give it a bit less milk. They live a
bit longer and they're a hardier type breed. They also produce higher quality milk in
terms of fat and protein. Which means that the farmer gets a better milk price than
the standard black and white liquid milk type cow.
- Right. So, financially it's better for you as well.
- Yeah, very much so, even though the output per cow is lower, the costs proportionally
are even lower than that. So, the margin is better.
- Are they just eating grass here?
- um, the majority of their diet is just grass in the grazing season, a small
amount of concentrate feed and in the winter they eat silage and foraged crops.
- Which is stored up grass, isn't it?
- Stored grass.
- I have to say, they all look incredibly healthy is this a better diet for them?
- In my opinion it is, yes, particularly with other species like Clover and Checkery in
the pasture. Everything the cow needs can be found in the soil. It's just up to us
as farmers to get better at using that soil, instead of buying things in bag and in a lorry.
- Do you have fewer health problems with them eating grass?
- Absolutely yeah. I think it's partly due to the fact that they eat green food
for most of the year, just like humans. I think eating their greens is good for them.
[laughs]
- And then presumably the benefits get passed on through the milk.
- There's evidence to suggest that the milk from grass fed cows is certainly
healthier for humans.
- Research shows that milk from grazing cows contains higher levels of some nutrients
than cows that are fed on TMR rations made with maize, silage and cereals.
These nutrients include anti-oxidants such as vitamin E and important fats, the
omega-3's and the substance known as CLA. These are really important for brain
development and function. They help guard against heart disease and even some types
of cancer. So, I'm off now to meet a scientist who's been carrying out some of
this research.
Gillian Butler, a Senior Lecturer at Newcastle University has
worked with farmers in the North East for over 30 years.
- Nafferton farm is... is like two half farms put together. Half is run to organic
standards and the other half is managed conventionally.
- Based at the University's own farm, her current research is analyzing animal fats,
studying how we can produce food that's better for our health.
- So, what are we seeing here?
- These are the organic herd, just on their way into milking.
- For research purposes the two herds are kept strictly separate.
- So, here we've got the conventional cows on this side and the organic herd on this
side. And this is as close as the two herds come and it looks like a normal
milking parlor but in fact, it's two half parlors. That are self contained so that we
can milk the herds at the same time by the same person. And that won't bias
any of the research that we're carrying out on these two herds.
- The milk from the predominantly grass fed organic herd and the conventional herd
along with samples from many other farms are brought to the labs for analysis.
- So, this is the lab where all the sample preparation goes on and this is Socrates
who's been responsible for all the sample preparation...
- Hello. - Hello.
- You're the lead researcher? - Yeah, that's right.
- Fantastic.
- So what we have to do is put a carefully measured amount of each milk sample
into these test tubes, mixed it with various chemicals to release the fatty acids and
then we can measure them.
So, this is Socrates setting up the final part in our analysis of milk
and it's all done by chromatography. Most peoples image of
chromatography is dropping a blob of black ink onto blotting paper it and separates
into all these colours. Exact same principles here, our sample gets dropped into
this machine and we can separate all the fatty acid and identify the relative
proportion of each, each of the fats.
- Right, and that's here is it?
- The size of the peaks represents the levels of each individual fatty acid
and if we look for some of the beneficial fats, we can see these two here
are the ones we are particularly interested in. This one is an omega-3 fat,
alpha-linoleic and this one is CLA, conjugated linoleic acid. And they are the
ones that we want to find in milk. These are good for us.
- So, what are we seeing here on this peak?
- That one is an omega-6 fatty acid, Linoleic acid that the fact that this is
so high suggests this is a conventional milk sample, they tend to be higher in
omega-6 fats coming from maize, maize is high in omega-6, as opposed to the grass
and clover that are higher in omega-3. And studies we published 2008 show cows fed
grass, a high proportion of grass in their diet, these would be much higher than on the
conventional and that tends to be dominated by omega-6 fats.
- So, this then scientifically proves that your pasture fed milk and your organic milk
contains more of these essential important nutrients that are so good for our health?
- Yes, certainly. All of our work shows that if cows are receiving grass in
their diet and they're out grazing then these peaks will be consistently higher,
there's no doubt about that. The grass results in higher levels of these beneficial fats in
our milk.
- So, we've now got scientific proof that this grass fed milk is far better for us
with all these great nutrients that we need. Why isn't it being labeled so I, as a
consumer, can go and buy it?
- Well, there doesn't seem to be much motivation from the milk processors, or the
retailers to do this, I think farmers would love to see grass fed milk marketed
separately but I think perhaps there's cost for the processor in segregating which they
don't want to bare and perhaps they're just not aware of the marketing opportunity that exists.
- So, if it's possible to produced healthier milk, why is it not more widely
available? Time to hear the industry view. -We've seen research shows that grass fed
milk is having higher levels of some of the beneficial fats, the omega-3's, the CLA.
Do you think that the industry could be doing more to encourage that and to create a
better product?
- Yeah, I think what the science is really interesting and the science is evolving. I
think the first point to start with is what a wonderful product we're starting off
with. So, yes, it is possible to, if you like, to cook ways off adapting the final
fatty acid composition of milk. But the fundamental issue is... as an industry,
before we even got anywhere near additional value, we haven't actually
established a good understanding of what's great about milk in the first
place?
- So, what then would you advice consumers to do?
- Firstly, they can look in terms of tracibility and milk integrity. For
example, they can look out for the tractor logo on pack.
- But that doesn't mean a huge amount, does it? I'm sorry, it just means it's legal.
- Uh, well...
- And it's British.
- Yeah. It go, it does go beyond that, in the red tractor logo. For example,
um, actually determines a whole series of, controls, a whole series of
balances and checks.
- Yeah. It's legal isn't it? It certainly doesn't tell you that the nutritional
value is over and above perhaps a standard product?
- I mean, your absolutely right The red trucks and logo isn't about the
nutritional qualities...
- So let's forget that. So, what else can we look for?
- The reality is of course that current labelling gives us no clue.
- [Amanda] Our message as an industry is that... we want people to really kind of
look at where if it comes to and how it's produced. Go and talk to your retailer, go
and find out, go and ask questions.
- [Liz Earle] Okay.
- [Amanda] And then only then can they know the true value of dairy.
- [Liz Earle] Should we be looking for the words pasture fed or grass fed?
- Well in terms of the system of production on pack, if that was...creating
a point of difference for the public and a point of difference in points of added
value for the farmer, then I'm sure that information that people would be... would
gladly see. Farmers will respond to market drivers but at the moment there aren't the
market drivers there that would, say, produce a, whatever that added value product is.
What we need is a marketing environment that allows us to
differentiate a point of purchase. So, you're absolutely right, it can be achieved
but it's not the answer for everybody. Because otherwise, if it's the answer for
everybody there is no point of difference.
- But there shouldn't be, there shouldn't really be two tiers of milk,
there should just be great milk for everybody.
- Well, isn't that what we've got today. Isn't that what we've got today.
- Well, I'll leave you to make you mind up, the irony is of course that most of us
believe milk which we and our families drink, that's given to the children in
schools, comes from cows that eats grass. Whereas as we've discovered. Grass can make up to as
little as 15% of the dairy cow's diet. The science is clear, the more grass a
cow eats the healthier the milk and there are plenty of dairy farmers out there
keeping their cows on the grass. On the shelf though, it's almost impossible to
distinguish pasture milk from TMR milk. And isn't it our right as consumers to know.
I want to buy milk that comes from cows that have been fed grass. But at the
moment, it's not being labelled on the shelves. So, I don't have that choice, all
we need is a bit of honest labelling. It's not a big ask, I just want to buy milk
that comes from cows eating grass.