I have a DAIRY SHEEP QUESTION(yes, that's right, DAIRY SHEEP)

[welsummerchicks]

Anyone have any experience milking dairy sheep? Are these that rare in the US? Lacaun, East Friesian? Icelandic, Finn, other various crossbreds?

Anyone milking sheep? Thinking about it?

I've read that sheep milk makes excellent cheese, and that it is a very much in demand item.

 

[Wifezilla]

There is someone on www.sufficientself.com that has dairy sheep. She may be on www.backyardherds.com too. She says lots of great things about them and they look adorable. Can't remember exactly who it was, but just do a search on those sites for dairy sheep.

 

[michickenwrangler]

I think Patandchickens has some. I've seen her post in the sheep section occasionally on BYH

 

[protodon]

I've never milked a sheep but I have been interested in doing it since I got goats for milk. So this past spring I got a couple katahdins. They are a meat breed but easy to come by in my area and supposedly provide enough milk for triplets so I am going to try milking them when they lamb in a couple months. I couldn't find any info about people milking katahdins so I hope to track how much they produce to see if it is actually worth it. I also want the milk for cheese.

 

[Mahonri]

I'd heard of people that milk sheep.. .I've just never seen any and How much milk could a sheep produce each milking?

 

[Wifezilla]

 

[protodon]

Quote:
This depends a lot on the breed. Generally sheep have a really short lactation period like about 90 days but the best dairy sheep can go for up to 6 months or more. Compare that to a goat or cow which you usually milk for 10 months.

There is some info here:
http://agalternatives.aers.psu.edu/Publications/milking_sheep.pdf

It also says that breeds in PA, and I imagine the US, produce around .75 to 2lbs of milk daily so that would be about 1 pint to 1 quart a day. That would of course vary depending on the breed of sheep and any selective breeding for milk production even in non-dairy breeds of sheep.