Dairy Workshop Vocabulary

Bull: fertile male cattle over one year old

Calf: any young cattle less than one year old

Casein: a phosphoprotein of milk as one that is precipitated from milk by heating with

an acid or by the action of lactic acid in souring and is used in making paints and

adhesives or one that is produced when milk is curdled by rennet, is the chief

constituent of cheese and is used in making plastics

Cow: mature female cattle that has given birth

Cream: the yellowish part of milk containing from 18 to about 40 percent butterfat

Curd: the thick casein-rich part of coagulated milk

Freezing Point Depression: the lowering of the freezing point by adding a solute to a

solution, such as salt to water to lower the freezing point of water

Heifer: a young beef or dairy female that has not given birth

Homogenize: to break up the fat globules of milk into uniform size and distribute

evenly in the milk

Ox: mature, castrated bull

Ruminant: animals that digest food using four-part stomach system (includes cattle, goat, and sheep) with the aid of symbiotic bacteria

Stanchion: device used to restrain a cow inside the barn, but allows for some up and down and some forward and backward motion; used so cow will not walk away while being milked

Steer: an ox less than four years old

Whey: the serum or watery part of milk that is separated from the coagulable part or curd, especially in the process of making cheese