10 Oct., 1916.] Farm Manufactured Butter. 633 



FARM MANUFACTURED BUTTER. 



Its Moisture Content ; and Some Factors which Influence it. 



By E. E. Ash, Dairy Supervisor. 



The law in Victoria, as it at present stands, allows up to 16 per 

 cent, of moisture in butter. This is well known to the factory manager, 

 who usually takes the necessary steps to see that the produce of his 

 factory complies with the above regulation. But can the same be said 

 of butter manufactured on the farm? There is good reason to suspect 

 that a considerable quantity of the butter manufactured on the farms 

 during the hotter months of the year would, if analyzed, show a moisture 

 content above that allowed by the Act. The farmer does not overload his 

 butter with water with the intention to defraud, but does it through 

 ignorance. His knowledge of the factors which govern moisture con- 

 tent are small, and he has no means of ascertaining the amount of 

 water the butter contains. Some conditions which favour an excess 

 of moisture are outside the control of the butter maker, but others 

 are directly under his control. A general knowledge of the whole 

 subject cannot, therefore, be other than helpful to him. The mechani- 

 cal condition or texture of butter is largely responsible for its moisture 

 contents. Butter which is soft takes up and retains more moisture 

 than hard or finu butter. Butter churned at a high temperature will, 

 therefore, contain more moisture than that which is churned at a low 

 temperature. Butter is composed of various fats and oils, one of the 

 chief of which is olein. This is a fat somewhat similar to olive oil, 

 which remains liquid at fairly low temperatures. The percentage of 

 olein in butter appears to largely govern the texture or mechanical 

 condition of the butter. Butter with a high percentage of olein is 

 always softer than that in Avhich some of the other fats (such as 

 palmitin and stearin) predominate. The class of feed the cows get 

 has a good deal to do with the composition of the different fats in 

 butter. Foods rich in fats like oilcake, linseed, and the young grass in 

 the spring, have a tendency to make the percentage of olein high, and 

 incidentally to make the butter softer and retain more moisture. Foods 

 like hay, roots, &c., usually make a firmer butter. The size of the 

 fat globules in the milk also appears to have some influence on the 

 firmness of the butter. Milk obtained from a herd of Jerseys contains 

 larger fat globules tban that from Ayrshires or Shorthorns. By this 

 it is not inferred that butter made from a herd of Jerseys would 

 necessarily contain a higher percentage of water than that obtained 

 from Ayrshires or Shorthorns, but that there would be a tendency to 

 a higher moisture content unless proper churning conditions were 

 obsen^ed. Tlic milk from newly-calved cows contains larger fat 

 globules than that ol)taiiied from cows later in the period of lactation. 

 It will thus be seen th:it there are many influences wliicli may have an 

 effect on the moisture contents of butter; but for all practical purposes 

 the farmer need not concern himself about the size of fat ghibules, or 

 the percentage of the different fats in butter. It is better for him to 

 turn his attention to proper churning metlinds, and to tlie control of 



