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The aim was to study the effect of pasturing time (4 versus 9 hours) combined with restricted indoor feeding on fat content, fatty acid composition, concentration of ¿-tocopherol, ß-carotene, uric acid and ß-hydroxybutyrate in milk from Holstein Friesian dairy cows. Morning and afternoon milk samples were collected three times at the end of week 2, 4 and 6 of the experiment. Morning and afternoon milk from cows at pasture for 4 h varied significantly in medium and long chain fatty acids (C6-C14), C18:1 n-9, C18:2 n-6, C18:3 n-6 and cis 9, trans 11 CLA concentration for all the 3 weeks. Fat percentage, ¿-tocopherol, ß-carotene, milk uric acid and ß-hydroxybutyrate showed significant differences between morning and afternoon milk from 4-h pasture. In the contrary, there was no significant difference observed between morning and afternoon milk for most parameters studied in the 9-h pasture group. Similarly the difference between morning milk from 4- and 9-h was also non-significant for most parameters. Therefore, in general 4-h morning, 9-h morning and 9-h afternoon milk were very similar in their compositions for the parameters studied.

A red-smear soft cheese was produced four times during a year at an organic dairy farm using pasteurized and un-pasteurized milk, respectively, from the same milking. A commercial starter culture was added. The cheeses were characterized microbiologically and chemically in order to study how heat treatment and season affected their characteristics during cheese making and ripening. Large variations between the different lots of cheeses characterized the production. However, the cheeses made from un-pasteurized milk generally had a higher lactic acid bacteria count except in cases, where the pasteurized milk was recontaminated or if acidification failure took place. Delays in acidification caused a more pronounced increase in numbers of E.coli, Enterobacteriaceae and staphylococci, as well as an increase in the plasmin and plasminogen-derived activities. A number of pre-milking and process steps were identified as important for the microbiological contamination and development in the cheeses.