[en] The type of grass made available to cows and, more specifically, the proportion of legumes influences the quality of dairy products, including milk. Here, we carried out 6 experiments whose results underscore how forage legumes affect milk quality, namely fatty acid composition and equol levels. When animals are given silage, legumes are better than grasses for improving milk fatty acid composition. Similarly, whether animals are grazing or green fed, forage legumes, and especially red clover, increase milk equol levels. When milk is processed to create dairy products, equol levels remain consistent. With the exception of organically produced milk, commercially available milk has much lower levels of equol than did the milk produced by our experimental animals given access to legumes.
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