One of the main criteria for choosing a cow is the taste and quality of milk. It happens that, having bought a cow, she began to give milk with bitterness, especially in winter, it is certainly a shame, but do not despair. Initially, you need to understand the reason, and then try to fix it. After all, there can be many of them: worms, vitamin deficiency, poor-quality food, few walking, other diseases.
The main causes of bitterness
First you need to understand that milk has a very complex composition, which is produced in many animals by the mammary glands, including female cows. After her first birth, she gets this tasty and nutritious milk. The taste and quality of a given liquid will depend on the composition in which many enzymes are present.
The main and most common cause of milk bitterness is the production of lipase, which appears several months before the birth of the calf. But many owners of these beautiful animals claim that such a phenomenon occurs not only in this period. There can be many reasons: unhealthy diet and serious diseases, and many others.
Impaired liver or gallbladder
If milk is bitter, then first of all veterinarians check the animal’s liver and gall bladder, since 90% of bitterness appears due to their violation. This can be either a congenital pathology, or acquired due to the ingress of microbes. If the analysis showed that this disease is congenital and cannot be treated, then the heifer is rejected, and if acquired, then it is treated.
Worms
An equally rare reason for the appearance of bitterness of milk is infection with worms. In this case, an analysis of the digestive tract and other nearby organs is done, and after diagnosis, the animal is treated.
How can you recognize that the heifer was infected with worms:
- The animal coughs and sweats, in the summer it can be due to the heat, but if sweat is released in the winter, then it is 99% of the worm.
- Bitterness is present immediately, but not strong, and the longer the milk stands, the bitterness intensifies, the cream bubbles, and sour cream has a very bitter taste.
Many people wonder how to remove a bitter aftertaste from milk. This can be done by heating the milk to 40 degrees, when it cools down, bitterness should disappear. But one must wonder, not how to remove bitterness, but how to cure a cow. A couple of times a year you need to take an analysis of feces to identify worms in the body.
The doctor may prescribe the following medications to drive off the parasites:
- Rolenol;
- Klozaverm;
- Brontel;
- Browalsen;
- Albendazole;
- Brovadazole
Before giving the cow medicine, it is necessary to read in the instructions whether it is possible for pregnant heifers and nursing mothers. Also, you can not overestimate the dose on your own, believing that in this way the worms go away faster. You should also read the instructions after how long the drug is excreted from the body, this time you can not drink either milk or eat the meat of this cow.
Pregnancy
Milk is directly related to pregnancy and childbirth, during this period milk is launched. In the last couple of months of pregnancy, the amount of milk has been decreasing. All lactation time, milk should be the same, it differs only in two periods: immediately after birth (colostrum) and at the end of feeding.
Cows and other cattle give colostrum immediately after birth, it allows the calf to acquire antibodies to raise immunity. Colostrum is very different from milk in taste: it is fatty, salty and viscous, it can give a little bitterness.
A couple of months before the birth, milk also changes, because the body of the future mother is radically rebuilt and spends all its energy on the intrauterine baby. During this period, the cow must be run and prepared for the dead period.
If this is not done in a timely manner (not started), then in milk there will be more salts than calcium. In addition, milk will become fatter, and it will contain a lot of protein, and its amount will decrease. The bitter taste may be due to hormonal changes.
Malnutrition
What a cow ate for the whole day directly affects the taste of milk baked. There are many plants that, when ingested, accumulate in the mammary glands, and then go out with milk. It may have a bitter taste.
- If cattle eat a lot of cruciferous plants, alkaloids can accumulate.
- Eating green onions will affect the bitterness of milk.
- If the animal eats wormwood in the fall, then the milk will be bitter, and in the spring they are happy to use this grass.
- Avran, garlic and tansy can also affect the taste of milk.
In addition to the above, bitterness can be if the feed was improperly selected and with a uniform diet. Rotten or spoiled grains change the taste of milk, also applies to potatoes, carrots and rutabaga. If you use them in large quantities, bitterness will be present in milk. If bitterness was due to feed, then it should be excluded for a while, and later replaced with another.
Mastitis
Milk with mastitis is not only bitter, but also salty, gives to the old, low-fat and there are clots in it. There are several types of mastitis, and depending on the type, taste and symptoms will vary.
You can’t prescribe treatment to a cow on your own, because for each species there are different medications and if you treat, for example, purulent mastitis with a medicine intended for acute, it can kill a cow. Therefore, only a veterinarian can diagnose the disease.
- Purulent. The udder increases in size, or rather the affected part, its temperature rises. Milk has a salty aftertaste, the color is yellow due to pus impurities, bitter and low fat. The animal has no appetite, it is lethargic and indifferent.
- Fibrinous. The udder also increases, the temperature rises, and there is no appetite even for your favorite food. Inside there are seals that can be felt with your hands. Green-yellow milk with yellow crumbs or clots. For three days there is no lactation, and even after the animal has been completely cured, there will be no milk of the same quality and quantity.
- Purulent catarrhal. Lactation also stops, and if there is a little, it is red, bitter and salty. The udder in a certain place becomes like a stone, turns red, the lymph node enlarges. Three days later, the cow becomes easier, but if untreated, the disease develops into a chronic form, and with good treatment, it completely disappears.
- Acute. This mastitis often happens after the birth of the calf. The udder turns red, it hurts, the affected side is stony. Milk becomes non-greasy, bitter with cereal.
- Catarrhal. The first 30 days of milking, catarrhal mastitis is often observed. At the same time, the fourth part of the udder swells in the cow, and after 4 days peas appear around the nipple. There are clots in the milk, and milk loses its fat content.
Breast injuries
Any injuries and bruises can directly affect the taste of milk. This is not the main sign of inflammation, in the first place clots will form, the color will be completely different, and the udder will have the wrong appearance.
Microbial development
It often happens that milk is tasty at first, and after about 24 hours it starts to bitter. This may mean that pathogenic bacteria got into it and began to multiply. In the room where the product is stored dusty, and this dust settles on milk. This most often happens if the udder is poorly washed or sanitary hygiene is not maintained in the barn.
Secondary causes
Quite frequent situations where the taste of milk changes when it is stored improperly. After milking, milk must be thermally treated, killing pathogens. On farms, milk is immediately pasteurized, bottled and sold. On other farms it is cooled in special tanks and only then sold. This is to prevent rapid spoilage of milk.
At home, where the economy is large and it is almost impossible to achieve complete sterilization, it is therefore possible to spoil or introduce pathogenic microorganisms into the body of a heifer. First, the taste of milk will be good, and then, under the influence of some reasons, it will begin to deteriorate:
- If milking is done manually, then under the influence of the sun it can deteriorate very quickly.
- If you store milk at a temperature of 25 to 40 degrees, milk can quickly disappear.
- Do not use copper and iron utensils for milking and storing milk.
But still, mainly milk spoils and is bitter due to ingress of pathogenic microbes, or a violation of sanitary standards. If you milk a cow whose milking is dirty or the hands of the owner, then this same dirt will get into the milk and bacteria will multiply.
No wonder they say that the first jets must be decanted into a separate container and poured, since it is in them that there are many microbes. In addition, it is important that the milking packaging is clean without residues from past milking; detergents must be thoroughly washed off, because even because of these factors, milk will be bitter.
Lack of minerals
If the analysis did not reveal worms, and the milk is still bitter, and the following symptoms were noticed:
- A cow licks the hosts, walls, wood, earth and other strange objects.
- Milk loses its fat content.
- The amount of milk is reduced.
This means that the cow lacks minerals, most likely cobalt is the mineral. The animal needs very little of this trace element, but on many soils, even in small doses, it is not. But this problem can be solved, on the shelves of pharmacy are pink tablets called "Sodium cobalt." Two tablets per day will be enough, the course of treatment is a month.
This problem is purely due to the soil, so it will be repeated constantly until the cow moves to graze in another place. Therefore, once every three months, it is necessary to carry out prophylaxis.
Infectious Diseases
Leptospirosis is most common in cows. There is no symptomatology of this disease, so the owner is unlikely to suspect something is wrong. Therefore, it is important to periodically take a blood test, in which the doctor will make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe the appropriate treatment.
How to get rid of a bitter taste?
In almost all cases, the bitter taste can be removed independently or with the help of veterinarians. But for this it is necessary to determine the exact cause and only after that do something. One factor alone cannot be cured - these are congenital diseases that affect the quality of milk. The rest can be solved, but the question is how much you can fix the situation.
Cause | Solution to the problem |
Before launch | If a couple of months before giving birth, milk begins to be bitter, this is a sign that the heifer should be started. |
Lack of sugar | In this case, the animal just needs to add a little sugar to the feed. |
Acidity increased in stomach | In the pharmacy you can buy a lizun, in which soda and one tsp are present. should be added to feed daily. |
Avitaminosis | You need to review the diet of heifers and add more vitamins to it, you can also enter the necessary dose intramuscularly. |
Colds | It is necessary to visit a veterinarian, and only he will prescribe the correct treatment. |
Worms | Twice a year - the beginning of spring and the beginning of autumn, the animal should be given antiparasitic tablets. If the worms still wound up, then prescribing a medicine is the work of veterinarians. |
Poor hygiene | The room where the animal is located needs to be ventilated, cleaned daily, and the cow should be washed and washed milking before milking. |
Poor feeding | Grain and hay should be of high quality, without different additives. You need to add a little beets, molasses and tops to the diet daily. |
Cows can get milk for many reasons, and a doctor can make an accurate diagnosis. Although in some situations, such as improper feeding or care, the owner himself must understand this and make a difference. If the disease is not noticed in a timely manner and it is not cured, it will develop into a chronic form and then the cow will have to be discarded. It is important to periodically take a blood and urine test for prevention, as well as give anthelmintic drugs.