That's quite an ignorant comment but then again I think you just want to insult people rather than contribute to a conversation.
Cows can be fed grain or feed made from soya.
I don't really want any of that and would prefer to have dairy products from cows fed with grass (as much as possible).
It's a personal preference but thanks for just jumping in and slaggin me off, you're a real treat.
Which is the information which you requested.
Or, grass. But I think that's been mentioned a few times.
You can, as I explained.
I used an exclamation of surprise. That's not the same as slagging people off.
Calling someone ignorant is.
I've got dairy farmers in the family - with grass-fed cows - have you?
If you want to spend your time on a line-byline deconstruction of everything I wrote while being offended by it all then congrats on being so successful that you have so much time on your hands.
Can you point me to where I called you ignorant? I said your comment was ignorant but you read it how you wanted to read it so you could feign being offended.
Also, I didn't know that having family members in certain industries or jobs automatically made someone an expert in that field. I need to update my CV.
By the way, I do indeed have dairy farmers in my family. They feed their cows a mix of feeds, which is why I asked for a brand in the supermarkets that met my preference.
I would however like to thank you for the link you provided, which did indeed give me a great deal of info. Your use of WTF implies some idiocy on my part which I don't care for.
I won't get drawn into a game of forum tennis so thanks again for your link but please don't act so innocent, you knew how using WTF would be received.
Have a wonderful day.
We're not talking quantum physics here. We're talking about what cows eat.
Even my two year old has some idea.
"Most" cows eat a percentage of grain/soya in the winter as grass isn't available - even Organic Swiss cows eat about 10% grain/soya feed.
The cows that produce the milk for the Irish Kerrygold butter also are not totally grass-fed and eat 10% feed too.
Anchor butter from New Zealand is 100% grass-fed but then you're importing butter from the other side of the world.
Or you could...you know...mind your own business and not take it upon yourself to start spying on the cow-related practices of farmers.
It helps the integration, which in turn helps us get the mythical holy grail that is, the red passport.
So, I think it's good to talk about it.
I don't think anyone's been particularly insulting.
I found a statistic for this:
In the Swiss valleys -About 50 percent of the farms feed more than 80 percent grass.
In the mountain zone 3, more than 80 percent of the farms feed more than 80 percent grass.
But, debating the grass/grain ratio of a cows annual diet, insisting on only 100%, and using that as a yardstick from which we determine the quality of the butter produced seems a tad overkill.
It wasn't me asking for the 100% grass-fed cow as it can't exist in Switzerland.
I am moving from Russia and they just started getting Kerrygold here. It was the closest thing I could get to the butter I used to get from my Amish farmer in the U.S.
I'll be living in Luzern so if you can recommend a farmer I can buy butter from even better.
TIA
I'll merge this post into that thread as well.
Or do what I did when I moved here: buy the cheap butter first, see what that's like. Next time buy another brand, and then another one, until you find what you like. It's not ridiculously expensive to do this over a period of several months, and you can always use the un-preferred butter for cooking. (I'm a bit of a tightwad so I buy cheap butter for cooking anyway, and save the fancy stuff for a treat where its flavor can really be appreciated.)
Oh, and try some cultured (French-style) butter too. It's a bit tangy, sort of yogurty-tasting, can put you off a bit if you're not expecting that but I love it.
I buy the Pro Montagna from Coop when I have no Kerrygold left.
Grain fed milk contains phytates which hinder the absorption of certain trace elements.
most of the cows here in switzerland are grain/ pellet fed except in summers where they are left to graze on pastures.
the hay that the farmers made is not necessarily used only to feed the cows ( remember the reason of mad cow disease ?)
Thanks for that link, I couldn't find the thanks button!
Personally I think the American style alternative health market making forces are at play here making people think it's either a do or die kind of mentality that screams too much into our faces. In other words all this grass fed marketing stuff simply feeds into the belief system and health scare mongering that helps to build their business models.
As the author Michael Pollan says “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” and “If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat”
― Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food:
Personally I prefer real, fresh food. If the cows eat grass for the majority of the year I'm happy as I'm sure they they will be too.
I've had some fantastic local butter from farmers in my area but haven't found a good tasting reasonably priced butter at the big supermarkets. COOP is jumping on the bandwagon and offering BIO ghee or Bio butter for almost triple the price from across the border.
I'm surprised the rest of us haven't dropped dead.