Botanically diverse forages: implications for ruminant product composition and quality

Forage feeding is the basis of ruminant production in many parts of Europe and products from forage-fed animals are increasingly valued by the consumer. This paper focuses on the effects of feeding botanically diverse forages on the fatty acid composition, shelf-life and sensory characteristics of ruminant products. Research has shown that farming systems based on a high proportion of dietary forage result in ruminant products with higher n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and antioxidants compared to those from conventional farming systems that rely more on concentrate feeding. However, not only the proportion of the forage in the diet but also the botanical composition of those forages appears to be an important factor determining product composition and quality. Alpine/mountain systems, characterized by a high proportion of forage and botanical diversity, have also been reported to enhance the n-3 PUFA, conjugated linoleic acid and anti-oxidants concentrations in ruminant products. The data on differences in sensory Characteristics of ruminant products from botanically diverse forages compared to monoculture forages per se are not convincing. However, differences in the production system, encompassing differences in environment/region and possibly animal type as well as the botanical diversity of forages, can influence the sensory characteristics of cheese in particular. Among the challenges to capturing the benefits of botanically diverse forages is the requirement to authenticate food products from particular environments/production systems and the long term maintenance of the botanical diversity in a pasture which contributes the unique set of compositional/sensory characteristics to the products of this system