BIOSYLF - Livestock farming systems and the capability of producing cheese from organic milk: between farmers’ strategies, technological itineraries and cheese quality

OBJECTIVES

The project is based on an initiative of a group of five farms on the plain of the western Vosges that produce organic milk from grass-fed cows and that are involved in the "hay milk" Traditional Speciality Guarantee, using part of their milk to make traditional cheeses. This project examines, on the one hand, the diversity of the technical management of these farming systems and their adaptation to the diversity of environmental resources, and on the other, their implications in terms of the cheese-making qualities of the milk, the adaptation of cheese-making technology and the quality of the cheeses produced.

REALISATIONS

The five farms studied have relatively homogeneous practices (grazing systems, exclusively dry fodder, little or no use of concentrates, etc.) compared with the diversity observed in organic agriculture.

For three contrasting periods of the year, raw milk from the five farms was collected and processed using two cheese-making technologies (pressed cooked or uncooked), with or without the addition of lactic starter with reduction activities. The main results show that:

• la nature des microflores diffère dans les laits selon les fermes (pratiques de traite) et les périodes (alimentation, conduites d’élevage)
• l’ajout de levain lactique réducteur accélère la cinétique d’acidification, quelle que soit la technologie et permettrait une meilleure régularité de fabrication fromagère
• l’effet saison se retrouve dans le goût et les aromes, de même l’ajout du levain réducteur mais seulement en hiver
• la technologie pâte pressée cuite atténue l’effet saison tout en laissant s’exprimer la microflore naturelle du lait

Les perspectives sont d’étudier (i) les aptitudes fromagères des laits biologiques d’une plus large diversité de systèmes et (ii) les continuums microbiens au sein des fermes biologiques

Participants

INRAE units

• ASTER, Mirecourt
• Fromage, Aurillac
• URTAL, Poligny

Partners

• Organic farmers, France
• Artisan cheese dairy “La boîte à fromages”, France
• Organic professional organisation “Bio en Grand Est”, France

Contact

• Thomas Puech (UR ASTER)
• Eric Beuvier (UR URTAL)