Troubleshooting Butter Problems (2024)

All summer, I enjoyed fast-churned butter using a Kitchen Aid mixer and frozen/thawed cream – my go-to method.

We pulled our cows off pasture the end of September.

Over the next few weeks, the butter changed from fast-churning of about 3-5 minutes to slow-churning of 20+ minutes.

I’ve noticed that the most recent butter we made is rock-hard and even at room temperature (70°F) is difficult to spread on bread!

Taking these considerations into account, I can apply them to determine what temperature to whip the cream at in order to get the cream to turn to butter.

(1) Spring pasture diet makes soft fats, which churn easier. Winter feed, dry food, creates hard fats. Calving cows in spring can maximize the benefit of spring and summer pasture benefits. In winter, the addition of moisture (succulence) and proper fats in feed can improve churnability.

“It has been highlighted that the concentration of unsaturated FAs and CLA in milk fat [from pasture-fed cattle] correlates negatively with that of SFA, and this relationship affects the texture (softness/hardness) of dairy products such as butter” – from The Grass-Fed Milk Story

(2) Different breeds and cows within breeds can naturally produce softer or harder fats. We have Jersey cows which produce the softest fats, generally. (Scientifically, I believe, it’s that Jerseys have the “largest fat globules” which readily churn and make the breed known for “easy” buttermaking.) Yet, we have a modern Canadian Jersey (who produces the large, soft fat) and also an old fashioned American Jersey (who produces small, hard fat).

One way to tell with your own cow is not only in how fast her butter churns, but in how quickly the cream rises to the top of a jar of milk. For example, goats have tiny fat particles, therefore their milk is commonly referred to as naturally hom*ogenized. Dutch Belt and Holstein would be the cow equivalent to the fat size in goats milk. Whereas the cream in Jersey milk rises rapidly.

If I had more cows, I would cull the American Jersey because her fat is harder to churn. But, for now I just have to work with her and breed her to better bulls in the hope of getting a Jersey heifer that will then produce more typical soft fats. (This is not measured in sire statistics, so I just have to use knowledge of genetic lines to attempt this.)

(3) Lactation status affects fat size. The size of butterfat is the highest when a cow is fresh and early in her lactation. Toward the end of lactation, fat globules get smaller and smaller, which is why some people milking only one cow that is late in lactation may often find buttermaking very difficult, even with the abundance of cream that late lactation usually provides…Right now, we’re on a spring calving schedule for one cow and fall calving for the second cow, so I’ve been mixing the cream from both in attempt to get a blended cream consistency.

(4) The cow’s diet “affects the melting-point of butter to a considerable extent.” The book mentions a few specifics:

Cottonseed, specifically, makes a crumbly, tallowy, hard fat. [So don’t feed this!]
Linseed meal (or perhaps adding flax to the diet?) tends to soften the fat.
Practically all “succulent foods” tend to decrease the melting point of butterfat.

On our farm, we transitioned off of 100% pasture diet onto 100% hay diet over the course of a month – this coincides exactly with my difficulties in getting the butter to churn! Therefore, I am looking into feeding more beet pulp, perhaps finding flax to add to their winter concentrate/grain ration, and maybe attempting a soaked grain or barley fodder supplement while the cows are off pasture. And I wish I had some extra garden carrots to feed the cows…

What are succulent foods?

Succulent feeds are high-feed-value feeds that add moisture to the diet.

From Morrison’s Feeds and Feeding (1956 edt.) page 165: “Scientific experiments and common farm experience have abundantly demonstrated the value of adding succulent feeds to the ration of livestock. Just as our own appetites are stimulated by fruits and vegetables, succulent feeds are relishes for farm animals, inducing them to eat more feed and convert it economically into useful products. The beneficial laxative effect of silage and other succulent feeds aids in keeping stock healthy. Also, succulent feeds may stimulate digestion, because of their palatability.”

Pasture (particularly spring and early summer);
Silage (which spoils quickly) is not readily available to most small farms (though it is used abundantly on large farms);
Baleage is an alternative that works if your farm has the right tractor to handle the heavy, wrapped bales and if you have enough animals that a round bale, once unwrapped, can be consumed within a few days (otherwise, the bale may spoil like silage does);
Beets: The most commonly used succulent is soaked beet pulp – easily purchased in dried, shredded or pelleted form, with added molasses, ready to reconstitute as needed.
Caveat: Most commercial corn and beets are GMO these days.

Other options include:

Fodder: Grain, soaked, sprouted, and allowed to grow a few inches tall, a mimic of lush spring pasture;
Fruits: Apple pomace (A 1936 study fed dairy cattle apples at a rate of up to 3% of body weight with no negative effect on milk production or milk flavor. These were silage-fed cows normally, so if feeding a higher percentage of something like apples to a cow on a completely dry-feed diet, make the change gradually just like you would if adding grain to the diet. A 1980’s study recommended apples as up to 1/3 of concentrate ration and no more than about 20% of diet.)
Vegetables: Crops you can grow or buy for your cow that tend NOT to negatively affect milk flavor include:
- BEETS: Grow your own or purchase non-GMO options. “[shredded] Fodder beets… stimulate milk production
  without imparting flavor in milk.” Vegetable Fodder & Forage Crops for Livestock Production: Fodder Beets (WSU)
- CARROTS: “Carrot roots are especially valued for their high beta-carotene content and were historically used as winter feed for
  dairy cattle to produce yellow coloring in butter and cream
  (Watson, 1949). Current research indicates that incorporating carrots into the diets of dairy cows increases the
  amounts of vitamin A and fatty acids [including CLA] in their milk (Nalecz Tarwacka et al., 2003).” Vegetable Fodder & Forage Crops for Livestock Production: Carrots (WSU)
- Note, in the same series of articles, turnips and rutabagas were generally not recommended for dairy cattle due to either digestibility issues or the fact that they impart off-flavor in the milk and butter. Potatoes were found to negatively affect butter.
and some oilseeds: linseed was particularly referenced in the buttermaking book. In additional resources, I found that oils that increase unsaturated fats in the butter are correlated with softer butterfat.

So, you’ve got all the above options to help you adjust the churning temperature to increase the chances your cream will churn into butter.

What is the magical temperature?

“The temperature may vary [due to the above factors] but the average desirable churning temperature under normal conditions is between 50°F and 60°F.”

“Any conditions which tend to harden the butter-fat will require a comparatively high churning temperature; and any conditions tending to soften the butter-fat will require a lowering of the churning temperature.”

In summer, I can pull the cream straight out of the fridge (at 40°F) to churn. Now, I’ll try warming the cream to 60°F before churning in hopes the cream will change to butter faster.

CASE STUDY: November 4, 2020:
To test the theories above, we have been slowly adding fresh, shredded beets to the cow’s grain ration, but I believe we can still do a lot more to increase the succulence of the cow’s feed.
So, Test #1 is primarily using the regular method with only one change, initial temperature of the cream when churning.
I followed my regular routine of preparing the cream:
Skimming cream off of milk that is 2-3 days old,
Freezing the cream completely,
Thawing the cream at room temperature until mostly thawed,
Skimming the cream a second time for a thicker cream.
I stirred the cream up evenly and split into two batches:
Batch #1 – Churned at 40°F
Batch #2 – Warmed the cream in a pan on the stove to 60°F
THE RESULT:
Batch #1 – TOOK 22 MINUTES TO CHURN
Batch #2 – TOOK 9.5 MINUTES TO CHURN!
Warming the cream to 60°F saved 12.5 whole minutes of churn time!

Does raising the temperature harm the quality of butter?

“The lower the temperature at which the churning can be successfully accomplished, the more complete will be the churning; that is, the less fat will remain in the buttermilk.” Said another way, cooler churning temperatures increase the quality of butter by increasing the percentage of fat in the butter.

If the winter cream makes butter that is more watery, I can use that butter for cooking or for turning to ghee. I won’t use high moisture butter to leave out on the counter.

The butter churned at 60°F came out the same consistency as the 40°F cream (that literally just whipped until it warmed up to almost 60°F, then it turned to butter in a similar time as the warmer batch).

Further Assistance Needed?

Check out our butter book: https://spiritedrose.wordpress.com/books/