470 BUTTER 



Cowy and Barny Flavor. Butter with a cowy flavor sug- 

 gests contamination with manure and stable air. This flavor oc- 

 casionally is very pronounced, especially in some species of dairy 

 butter, in which case the butter usually scores a poor "Seconds," 

 The cowy flavor may be due to milking cows whose udders and 

 flanks are plastered with manure, the handling and exposure of 

 milk and cream in unventilated stables, and not removing the ani- 

 mal heat from the milk or cream promptly. 



The milk and cream which produce butter with a cowy or 

 barny flavor are generally contaminated with large numbers of 

 Bacillus coli communis and Bacillus coli aerogenes. These or- 

 ganisms are the natural inhabitants of the colon, or large in- 

 testine of the animal, and are therefore found abundantly in the 

 manure. The abundant presence of these bacilli in milk and 

 cream is rather conclusive evidence of the pollution of milk and 

 cream with excreta from the cow. When milk and cream so con- 

 taminated are not promptly cooled these germs multiply rapidly 

 and intensify the barny odors in the butter. For details see 

 Chapter IV on Care of Milk and Cream on the Farm. 



Musty and Smothered Flavor. This butter defect is gener- 

 ally .caused by lack of prompt cooling and aeration of the cream 

 on the farm. The sealing up of the warm cream in the shipping can 

 without giving it any opportunity to give off its animal heat is 

 generally believed to cause a musty, smothered flavor. The stor- 

 ing of the cream in damp and poorly ventilated cellars with a 

 stagnant atmosphere is another probable cause of musty flavored 

 butter. The cause of musty flavor frequently also lies in the 

 feeding of moldy, musty and decayed foods, such as moldy hay, 

 moldy silage and musty grain. 



Feed and Weed Flavors. To this group of butter flavors be- 

 long a variety of flavors characteristic of the feeds to which the 

 cows have access. Many of these flavors are not very pronounced 

 and therefore not seriously objectionable, but others are very 

 marked and in some instances greatly depreciate the market 

 value of butter. 



Since the feed flavors are usually traceable direct to the charac- 

 teristic feeds producing them, or to excessive feeding of certain 

 types of feeds, or to microorganisms with which certain feeds are 



