Analysis of The Chemical Composition of Buffalo Milk at Three Different Stages of Lactation

The present study was conducted to evaluate the chemical composition of buffalo milk at three different stages of lactation. The milk samples were collected from 'Buffalo Breeding and Development Farm", Bagerhat, and chemical analysis was done in Dairy Technology Laboratory of "Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute", Savar, Dhaka. The experiment was conducted during the period of January 6 to April 17. Parameters used to monitor the quality of buffalo milk samples were fat (%), protein (%), lactose (%), SNF (%) and minerals (%) contents of milk. From the chemical analysis, it was found that buffalo milk contained higher quantity of fat and protein and was rich source of lactose and SNF. The effect of lactation stages on the content of milk fat (4.68 to 5.71%), protein (3.89 to 4.28%) and SNF (10.33 to 11.18%) was found to be significant (P<0.05). In contrast, the content of total lactose (5.94 to 6.25%) and minerals (0.49 to 0.53%) did not vary significantly among the different stages of lactation. The content of protein, fat, lactose and minerals were found to be significantly higher in late lactation stage than early and mid stage. Finally, it can be concluded that the milk fat and protein content increased significantly and progressively with increasing stages of lactation.

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