Swiss milk – indispensable for the agriculture industry

Milk production is the most important branch of Switzerland’s agriculture industry. That’s because we have a lot of meadowland and thus plenty of fodder for cows. There are almost 20,000 dairy farmers in Switzerland who keep a total of around 560,000 cows that produce a combined volume of almost 4 billion kilograms of milk per annum. The number of dairy cows has decreased in recent years, but milk production has held steady because the milk yield per cow has increased at the same time.

The yield per cow amounts to around 7,000 kilograms of milk per annum. A Swiss cow gives 20 to 35 kilograms of milk per day, depending on its breed and age.

Milk is a natural beverage that contains numerous beneficial ingredients. It is composed of around 87% water, 3.3% protein, 4% milk fat and 4.7% lactose. It also contains minerals like calcium, potassium, iodine, magnesium and iron, as well as 15 different vitamins. Milk processors today supply a wide range of lactose-free dairy products for people with lactose intolerance.

Milk can be used to make numerous products. In Switzerland, cheese production is especially important. Milk processors also produce drinking milk, butter, cream, yogurt and other dairy specialties. Part of the milk is processed into preserved milk products such as condensed milk or powdered milk, for example.

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Cheese, the biggest agricultural export product

Switzerland is famous worldwide for its premium-quality cheese. Cheese consequently is the Swiss agriculture industry’s most important export product. The Swiss, too, like to eat Swiss cheese – they consume around 22 kilograms of it per capita each year.

There are numerous cheese varieties, and they can be subdivided into different categories. Extra-hard cheeses have an especially long ripening period behind them. The most prominent Swiss extra-hard cheese is Sbrinz AOP. There is a wide selection of hard cheeses, a category that includes Emmentaler AOP and Gruyère AOP. Appenzeller, raclette cheese, Tête de Moine AOP and Tilsiter rank among the semi-hard cheeses. Soft cheeses, on the other hand, ripen relatively quickly. La Tomme Vaudoise and Vacherin Mont-d’Or AOP are renowned Swiss soft cheeses. Fresh cheeses are recognizable by not having a rind. Mozzarella – the most popular cheese in Switzerland –, cottage cheese and quark are well-known fresh cheese varieties.

Yogurt

The word yogurt means “fermented milk.” To manufacture yogurt, lactic acid bacteria cultures are deliberately added to milk to induce fermentation. This souring process thickens the milk and gives it a longer shelf life. Yogurt comes plain or in a variety of different flavors.

Cream

In the production of cream, milk fat is separated through centrifugation. There are different kinds of cream for different intended uses. Heavy cream is especially good for whipping. Single cream has a reduced fat content. Sour cream, crème fraîche and coffee cream are other cream varieties.

Butter

Cream is the starting material for making butter. The cream is ripened and then agitated in a churning machine until butter grains form. Those grains are then kneaded into butter. There are butter types adapted to different uses, such as premium butter, cooking butter or clarified butter. Butter blended with Swiss rapeseed oil is exceptionally spreadable.

Swiss farmers produce more than just cow’s milk

Products made from goat’s milk and sheep’s milk are enjoying growing popularity. Goat’s milk is mainly processed into specialty cheeses, but pure goat’s milk can also be bought in stores. Its very distinctive flavor clearly distinguishes it from cow’s milk. Sheep’s milk, in contrast, has a much milder taste, and it has a higher nutritive value than cow’s or goat’s milk. Sheep’s milk is used to produce drinking milk, yogurt and a variety of different kinds of cheeses.