Data-driven breeding for healthier dairy fat

Through research, creative thinking and data-driven breeding, Danish researchers have explored how the fatty acid profile of milk can be influenced through genetics and farm management. The ambition is to create opportunities for dairy products with a more desirable fatty acid composition.

As global health challenges such as obesity and malnutrition continue to grow, there is increasing interest in developing dairy products with improved nutritional profiles. The research project SOBcows, involving Aarhus University, SEGES and partners across the Danish dairy sector, explores how data-driven breeding and milk quality parameters can support this development.

By analysing the genetic variation behind the fatty acid composition of milk, the project contributes to a better understanding of how breeding strategies may help shape future dairy production and create new opportunities for healthier dairy products.

Breeding for health

For several years, researchers collected and analysed fatty acid data from Danish dairy cows. The results show that the fatty acid composition of milk is influenced by factors such as breed, production system, lactation stage, farm management and genetics.

This creates new opportunities to work with the fatty acid profile of milk through breeding and feeding strategies. By using large-scale data, researchers and industry partners can gain a better understanding of how milk composition varies and how this knowledge may be used in future dairy innovation.

DATA-DRIVEN BREEDING is helping CHANGing THE FATTY ACID PROFILE OF MILK

The milk and cheese of the future?

In the long term, the research project might enable Danish companies to produce dairy products – from milk to cheese – with a higher content of healthy fatty acids.

The Danish organic dairy company Naturmælk sees perspectives in innovating cheeses with a higher proportion of unsaturated fatty acids to a market that increasingly demands organic and healthy products. Therefore, the company has, as part of the project, developed the first cheeses with a higher content of unsaturated fatty acids on a test basis and the preliminary results look promising without significant taste differences between this and traditional cheese.

The project is a perfect example of how health and taste can go hand-in-hand, something that is extremely important in the Danish food innovation.