Hi, I am relatively new to this and am actually just working with a friend to try to solve some problems. Recently, we switched our herd of Jersey and one Holstein over to mostly Ayrshires. Some time after this, we started having problems with our cheese taking way to long to coagulate. Before the switch, our milk would coagulate in 40/45 min range. Now it is taking closer to 55 min and one batch last week took up to 1hr and 25 min. We have tried switching to new starter - no help, new rennit - no help, calcium cloride - no help. Our overall somatic cell count has not been that high, right now it is around 270,000 to 300,000. One cheese maker suggested we test each individual quarter on our cows to see if we could narrow down the problem. I have read in several places that you may need to increase your rennet depending on the type of cows etc.
Does anyone have any ideas of know of a similar problem and the solution for it?
Thanks in advance,
Lora