Milking Sheep

There is just something funny sounding about milking sheep. Like milking cats. 😆

No. I get it though. Sheep are probably a more sturdy choice than goats. We are not there yet (Maybe two years from now) but look forward to hearing about it.

Do you like Feta? Because if you have ever bought the good stuff, then you have been enjoying sheep milk products..

It's probably a good move to start with sheep in a bol., requiring less infrastructure than a cow, and more flexible.
Plus, as Geoff Lawton points out in a video i recently posted elsewhere, they can be used to feed on/clear invasive scrub growth at forest margins to reclaim space for reshaping, composting, growing veggies.
Personally,taste-wise, i prefer 100% goat feta from greece, but that's expensive to buy, and the sheep seem more versatile on a homestead.
Farmgal, do you pasteurize your sheep milk? Do goats produce more milk than sheep on average? What measures do you take to protect from bear and wolf?
I've only ever milked cows, long time ago....never pasteurized., only filtered....and very clean, stainless with diversol, dust covers,etc.

Super fast reply at the moment, I am in the middle of doing a major canning day, so I will come back and do more.. but if you are getting Greek Feta, you are getting sheep milk feta, by law

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feta

feta has been a protected designation of origin product in the European Union. According to the relevant EU legislation, only those cheeses produced in a traditional way in some areas of Greece (mainland and the island of Lesbos), and made from sheep's milk, or from a mixture of sheep and goat's milk (up to 30%) of the same area, may bear the name "feta

More later..

It's probably a good move to start with sheep in a bol., requiring less infrastructure than a cow, and more flexible.
Plus, as Geoff Lawton points out in a video i recently posted elsewhere, they can be used to feed on/clear invasive scrub growth at forest margins to reclaim space for reshaping, composting, growing veggies.
Personally,taste-wise, i prefer 100% goat feta from greece, but that's expensive to buy, and the sheep seem more versatile on a homestead.
Farmgal, do you pasteurize your sheep milk? Do goats produce more milk than sheep on average? What measures do you take to protect from bear and wolf?
I've only ever milked cows, long time ago....never pasteurized., only filtered....and very clean, stainless with diversol, dust covers,etc.

For sure on the infrastructure, when I first got my 3 ewe's we didn't have fencing for them, they had dog collars they worn, and trained to walk on leashes and were attached to car tires and left to graze, sure I keep a eye on them, but they would only pull it a few feet, graze around and pull another few feet etc, while the folks laughed at the site, they never had a single issue with it and it worked like a charm, (a throw back to my childhood, when my parents did the same thing with our goats)

They can for sure be used to clear scrub and area's etc, I use them to help keep mini-garden area's in the food forest cropped.

I don't pasteurize it, I milk into steel, strain and into glass jars and into the fridge, but having said that, because I do most of the milk into cheese, yogurts or cooking, or even sheep milk icecream with it, my sheep make such rich milk that I do get a cream layer and even make sheep butter..

A milk goat and a milk sheep can be very much the same, overall, goats do produce on normal more then the average sheep but hopefully, you are milking a sheep with a good bag who is a bigger producer, but the thing to keep in mind is that sheep milk produces 2.5 times more cheese, or solid useable mass for the same amount of milk as per a goat or sheep..

So in that way, if you are not getting a really high yield of goat milk, the sheep can still hold its own production wise, their milk is so rich that you can cut it in half or even use it 1/3rd to 2/3rds water for drinking, so it can't be compared directly quart to quart because they are not equal in production.

http://www.sheep101.info/dairy.html

As for protection, my area does have the odd bear but its mainly the coy-wolf that is the issue around these parts, my main things are.. a) taking my male dogs on the outer walk about and having them pee mark it, and b) when you close up the barn, it's closed up tightly, and c) I have a very big boss horse that only likes "her" dogs.

So far, so good.. but solar powered electric fencing would be my next push if needed..

Nice...NICE...and TRIPLE NICE!!! on the Tire tether. Nice...but I am obsessing. Ive been collecting those dog screw things but that is WAY better. We are not worthy.
Its fantabulous that we have grazing land but there is no way that we will ever be able to afford to fence it. I was deeply influenced by what we saw in Cuba. Even pigs were tethered. Tire tethering is fandidliastic prepper specific advice. Thank you, Farm'fantabulous'gal

So appreciate the details, Farmgal! It's recorded in my brain for future application
. I had no idea that the cheese production was that much higher....quite an incentive to go that way.

Most farmers are familiar with the "conventional knowledge" that sheep Must be treated for the inevitable worms regimen of chemicals"...wormwood etc.instead?....
Have you been able to overcome this "necessary evil"?
How do you manage your feed?....10-20% alfalfa/clovers , random grasses, and what else?

,....whenyou have time,...thanks,....villager

So appreciate the details, Farmgal! It's recorded in my brain for future application
. I had no idea that the cheese production was that much higher....quite an incentive to go that way.

Most farmers are familiar with the "conventional knowledge" that sheep Must be treated for the inevitable worms regimen of chemicals"...wormwood etc.instead?....
Have you been able to overcome this "necessary evil"?
How do you manage your feed?....10-20% alfalfa/clovers , random grasses, and what else?

,....whenyou have time,...thanks,....villager

Hi Villager,

I have had that same though, without having a fridge, most of the fresh milk products will need to be fermented and make into some form of cheese, the sheep milk certainly has a lot of good quality in this regards. Someone who reads my blog and who also milks her sheep make a comment that her one ewe's milk who just lambed a couple weeks ago milk is so rich, that she got a pound of cheese from a quart of milk, trust me that is amazing on the return value.

Worming is a issue, If you are wiling to use different things at different times, you can't get rid of worms but you certainly can grow a good number of things, or havest different things that you can feed them, I do like wormwood but its a very hard thing to overwinter in my own neck of the woods, I have tried for a number of year, so while I can buy some and use it, its not my go to..

The things that I have and grow on my farm that have studies done in regard to helping with worming are Mulberry leaves and fruit, Mustard greens and seeds, Turnips, the big yellow kind or even better the old fashioned sheep fodder ones, Yarrow is a very good natural wormer, Birch leaves are very cleansing and will expel worms and trimmings can be feed in spring as the first leaves come out with very good results. Comfrey is a amazing tonic plant and you can have a number of cuttings in mature plants. Remember with Comfrey to check which kind you are planting, most are good but Comfrey #14 is considered to bitter to be liked and used as livestock fodder, or so I have read and been told.

And I regret to say that my sheep also self treat worms by nibbling on rhubarb leaves, I wish they didn't but none the less, they do.. I have also seen them self-treat with milk-weed plants..

The second thing in regards to worms is breeder control and breeding/culling for strong health based on your own land, my own sheep flock has been on this land for nine years, that means eight years of lambs to pick from for the best hold backs that have the best growth and health while dealing with my lands natural worm loads etc.

As for feed, the pastures were hay fields when we bought the farm, it was done into seeded for cow pasture for dairy farmer, we buy a small amount of mixed animal, and for sheep pasture seed each spring (its custom made by the local seed guy) and we frost seed out the different areas, we have claimed back almost another full acre of what was "srub" land and turned it into very productive pasture this way, overgrazing with the sheep, then doing pig fine compost spread out on the snow, so you can see where you spread it, then frost seeding, closing the area off, and doing controlled grazings, my pastures took a huge beating on the drought year! IT will take me years to get it back to where it was..

If you know what you want to raise, then investing that 50 to 60 dollars yearly to create the feed/hay and fodder/pasture that is tailored for your own needs and livestock is well worth it.. To get extra feed, we also seed out our ditch lines, and with the other land owners permission, the ditch lines that run up and down the road by our place, our county does not spray, they cut twice a season, some is always feed fresh, if the weather is good, I put up hay, if the weather is s0-so, we put up bedding, if its bad, compost etc.

The increase has been tracked carefully, I have seen a 15% percent increase overall in milk amounts and a steady extra 5 to 8 pounds live weight per lamb as my after pasture improvements over the years.. well worth it.

Just wondering if anyone else on the board milks their sheep? I do and I really enjoy doing so, Its that time of the year again and it got me to thinking that folks assume they need a goat or a cow, but really sheep are one of those triple purpose animals, If its a fiber sheep, you have wool, meat and milk..

Have you ever milked a sheep? used the milk for your own use?

pics!?! 😀

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH-W6kh_3rw

Very short video but its me milking one handed while filming myself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH-W6kh_3rw

Very short video but its me milking one handed while filming myself

er, I think that might have been a Ram...

sure, if that is what you saw.. ok..

For the rest of the folks, you can clearly see its hair sheep ewe being milked..

sure, if that is what you saw.. ok..

For the rest of the folks, you can clearly see its hair sheep ewe being milked..

😀

sure, if that is what you saw.. ok..

For the rest of the folks, you can clearly see its hair sheep ewe being milked..

😀

welcome back bad boy 😆