Citation: Rat , u, R.N.; Cârlescu, P.M.; Usturoi, M.G.; Lips , a, F.D.; Veles , cu, I.D.; Arsenoaia, V.N.; Florea, A.M.; Ciobanu, M.M.; Radu-Rusu, R.-M.; Postolache, A.N.; et al. Effects of Dairy Cows Management Systems on the Physicochemical and Nutritional Quality of Milk and Yogurt, in a North-Eastern Romanian Farm. Agriculture 2023, 13, 1295. https:// doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13071295 Academic Editor: Andrea Summer Received: 30 May 2023 Revised: 12 June 2023 Accepted: 22 June 2023 Published: 25 June 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). agriculture Article Effects of Dairy Cows Management Systems on the Physicochemical and Nutritional Quality of Milk and Yogurt, in a North-Eastern Romanian Farm Roxana Nicoleta Rat , u 1 , Petru Marian Cârlescu 1 , Marius Giorgi Usturoi 2 , Florin Daniel Lips , a 1 , Ionut , Dumitru Veles , cu 1 , Vlad Nicolae Arsenoaia 3 , Andreea Mihaela Florea 4, *, Marius Mihai Ciobanu 1 , Răzvan-Mihail Radu-Rusu 2, * , Alina Narcisa Postolache 5 and Daniel Simeanu 6 1 Department of Food Technologies, Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” University of Life Sciences, 3 Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700489 Iasi, Romania; roxana.ratu@uaiasi.ro (R.N.R.); pcarlescu@uaiasi.ro (P.M.C.); flipsa@uaiasi.ro (F.D.L.); ionut.velescu@uaiasi.ro (I.D.V.); marius.ciobanu@uaiasi.ro (M.M.C.) 2 Department of Animal Resources and Technology, Faculty of Food and Animal Sciences, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” University of Life Sciences, 8 Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700489 Iasi, Romania; umg@uaiasi.ro 3 Department of Pedotechnics, Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” University of Life Sciences, 3 Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700489 Iasi, Romania; vnarsenoaia@uaiasi.ro 4 Department of Plant Science, Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” University of Life Sciences, 3 Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700489 Iasi, Romania 5 Research and Development Station for Cattle Breeding Dancu, 707252 Iasi, Romania; narcisa.postolache@gmail.com 6 Department of Control, Expertise and Services, Faculty of Food and Animal Sciences, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” University of Life Sciences, 8 Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, 700489 Iasi, Romania; dsimeanu@uaiasi.ro * Correspondence: amflorea@uaiasi.ro (A.M.F.); radurazvan@uaiasi.ro (R.-M.R.-R.) Abstract: The study’s objective was to investigate changes in the fatty acid composition of cow milk in general and in 80 Romanian Spotted cows’ husbandry and feeding systems in particular (grazing–GC group vs. stabulation–SC group). The ultimate objective was to determine if the changes that happened in the milk also transferred to the finished product. Also, the influence of the quality of raw milk produced by both systems was evaluated when yogurt was made from it. The milk was gathered in May, July and September and used for both the yogurt-making process and thestudy, which lasted from May to October. In comparison to milk from SC, milk from grazed caws had larger percentages of fat and dry matter throughout the summer (GC) season. Moreover, pasture-based rations (MGC) contained more PUFA than MCS did. Data research revealed that not only do factors such as milk origin and initial quality have a substantial impact on yogurt quality parameters, but also technologies such as milk fermentation have a considerable impact on the fatty acid profile of yogurt. In comparison to cows kept permanently in stables, grazed cows (MGC) had fat with a lower concentration of saturated fatty acids and a higher proportion of rumenic, vaccenic and oleic acids (MSC). When fresh milk is processed into yogurt and other dairy products, the fatty acid profiles alter, with saturated fatty acids predominating over unsaturated ones. The findings show that pasture-fed cows have a positive impact on milk quality, particularly in terms of fatty acid profile, as well as on yogurt’s ultimate nutritional and dietary quality. Keywords: cows feeding; milk; yogurt; fatty acids; quality 1. Introduction Cow milk is a significant source of energy, high-quality protein, lipids, lactose, micro- and macroelements, vitamins and enzymes that support healthy human growth, develop- ment as well as essential organism processes [1]. The majority of milk lipids are in the form of triacylglycerols, which consist of a molecule of glycerol bonded to three ways of fatty acids. Over the last few decades, Agriculture 2023, 13, 1295. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture13071295 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/agriculture