Fatty acids have a major impact on nutritional and health issues in humans and can be used as a criteria to access the feeding intensity of livestock production systems. The purpose of the present study was to examine the fatty acid profile of dairy cow milk of different production systems: rations based on (1) maize silage and concentrates, (2) hay and concentrates, (3) continuous grazing on short grass and hay, (4) Alpine pasture systems, (5) milk from Austrian retail markets. About 250 milk samples were analysed. Regarding SFA und n-6 fatty acids, differences between milk origins were at about 10 % moderate. However, n-3 fatty acids and CLA were strongly influenced by production system. Milk from the continuous grazing system had at 1.4 g n-3 and 1.3 g CLA per 100 g milk fat the highest values, followed by the Alpine pasture systems. Milk from Austrian retail markets and milk from diets based on 80 % hay and 20 % concentrates had average n-3 and CLA contents of 0.9 and 0.7 g, respectively. Diets based on maize silage and concentrate markedly reduced the n-3 and CLA contents of milk fat
