Culture Magazine

40 culturecheesemag.com I N N OVAT I O N 202 3 milk has significantly higher fat and protein compared to goat's and cow's milk, making it excellent for cheesemaking despite lower overall milk volume. "If we are looking at building local markets, we need to increase production here, and we need to use the tools that they have in Europe to produce cheese here," she says. "Maybe one day we can produce it at a lower cost than the imports." Even in the cow sector, where high- producing Holsteins make up around 90 percent of the nation's dairy herd, farmers are looking to other breeds—and unconventional breeding strategies—to boost farm viability, raise healthier animals, and make high-quality cheese. "Genetics and breeding are the reason we can farm where we are, with the heat and the humidity," says Jessica Little, co-owner of Sweet Grass Dairy in Thomasville, Georgia. She and her cheesemaker husband, Jeremy Little, run the family's cheese business—Georgia's first—and source milk from three pasture-based dairies run by her parents, Al and Desiree Wehner, and brother her Clay. But raising animals on pasture for cheesemaking in their particular climate took time to figure out. The Wehners ran a 2,000-cow conventional dairy in Florida until 1993, when they decided to relocate to South Georgia with 500 of their best animals, and transition to rotational grazing. They soon learned their Holsteins were ill-suited to grazing outdoors in the hot, humid South. They consulted with old timers in the area—what breed did their grandfathers raise? "In the early '90s, nobody wanted Jerseys because they gave you so little milk that it wasn't worthwhile. You couldn't afford to feed them for the amount you would get back. But in this rotational grazing style, it was perfect," Little says. "The milk tasted so different, which is the reason Sweet Grass exists." The Wehners, who both have degrees in animal science, decided to create a cow that would thrive on their farm. That meant breeding for milk rich in fat and protein longevity—a cow that could have 12 to 15 lactations in a lifetime rather than two or three—and short, strong legs that could handle frequent walks from the pasture to the milking parlor. They'd need wide muzzles to pick up lots of grass with each bite and large rumens to digest it. Plus, good heat tolerance and fertility, and the now-desirable A2A2 protein. They mixed in breeds like Normande, "After 30 years, my parents have figured out that the cow that works in our system in South Georgia is never going to win any beauty contests." 1890: Stephen M. Babcock perfects the Babcock test, a device for measuring the butterfat content of milk. This enabled farmers to assess dairy animals' performance. 1938: New Jersey Extension Dairyman Enos J. Perry forms the first artificial breeding association for cattle in the US. His book, The Artificial Insemination of Farm Animals, was a foundational text on the subject. 1949: Researchers Christopher Polge, Audrey Smith, and Alan Parkes dis- cover that glycerol can protect sperm when frozen. This technology is quickly adapted to cattle breeding as well as human fertility treatments. Sweet Grass Dairy's mixed-breed herds have the genetics to thrive on grass in south Georgia's'hot, humid climate. PHOTO: Andrew Thomas Lee

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