Yes, butter can come from cows, but so can milk and many other dairy products. If you are looking for butter, it is best to look at the packaging.
Vermont creamery butter grass-fed
Vermont creamery butter usually has the words grass fed on the packaging. However, butter can still come from cows, but it is not necessarily grass-fed. Butter must come from cows that eat grass in order to be grass-fed.
A dairy cow is a large animal that produces milk (and sometimes cheese) and eats an enormous amount of food in order to produce milk for humans.
The cow takes several hundred pounds of grass every day for food. Most cows also have some hay or some grains that are part of their everyday diet. Downy brome (a type of grass) is the most common type of pasture for dairy cattle.
If the cows eat grass, the butter that is made from their milk will also be grass fed since most of these products must come from cows that were fed on grass and other healthy pasture foods.
So if the packaging says “grass fed,” it is probably coming from cattle that ate just grass in order to produce milk for us to eat. That may not include grains in the diet that add unhealthy fat to creamery butter.
Butter from grass-fed cows is different from creamery butter. Creamery butter is produced by a process where the cream is separated from milk. The cream is made into butter, and then that butter is packed in waxed paper, so it does not melt during transit. Eating this type of butter melts in your mouth because it has not been packed in waxed paper.
Conclusion
If you are looking for butter that will taste better and be healthier, it is best to look for grass fed on the packaging. That way, you know that it comes from a cow that ate only grass in order to produce the milk for you to eat.
