Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by blackthorn, Apr 9, 2009.

  1. blackthorn

    blackthorn Junior Member

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    Hi there all :D
    I have a healthy happy flock of dairy sheep and I'm curious if anyone else has some or if anyone would like to own some? I find some people seem to dislike sheep on principle :( but they are really fun and have oodles of personality-or mine do anyhow! I make fabulous raw milk cheese and yoghurt (the best yoghurt ever!) and we also drink the milk.............which tastes just like cow's milk only smoother richer and sweeter, even my mum (a dyed in the wool jersey cow milk drinker) loves it and even prefers it over the jersey milk! They also supply wool and meat and are small enough to handle easily. I have 2 breeds: East Friesian-a mostly white wooled breed (I have a few black ones though!), large framed, prolific having 2 lambs average and producing around 1-2 litres a day
    Awassi-a brown and white carpet wool breed, medium/large frame, usually have one lamb and produce around 1-2 litres a day
    I also have crosses of the above breeds. My best ewe peaked at 3 litres and gave 250L in 7 months 8)
    Anyway just hoping to connect with others interested in dairy sheep,
    Nessa :D
    PS you can visit my blog for pics etc https://blackthornsheepdairy.blogspot.com/
     
  2. Pacqio

    Pacqio Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    Hi there,

    I've always had a bubbling interest in dairy sheep tucked away somewhere in the back of my mind, never had experience with them though.

    I guess the milk yield is why I keep going back to dairy goats over dairy sheep; I've never heard of them producing as much as yours though, the figures I've been given in the past are between 0.7 and 1.4 L/hd/day. I also thought the East Friesian had higher yields than the Awassi?

    I looked at an ad for milking sheep ewe lambs a while back ... the place was offering East Friesian, Awassi and one other breed that I cant remember - do you have any thoughts as to what it could be? I'd never heard of the breed before.

    What is sheeps milk like for people who cannot drink cows milk? Most people who cant drink cows milk can drink goats milk.
     
  3. janahn

    janahn Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    i am planning to start breeding East Friesian's. Currently using Merino Lambs as part of a small cell grazing system. i have started to breed Poll Meaty Milking Goats. sheep are easy to train with an electric fence verses the goats which are a bit slow but eventually learn to avoid. sheep are more suitable for my long term strategy of an intensive orchard garden grazing system. i am 200 km inland from Brisbane. how far away are ewe ?
    regards Leo Mahon.
     
  4. Pacqio

    Pacqio Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    Hi Leo,

    what breed/breed combination are your "Poll Meaty Milking Goats"?

    ROFLMAO
     
  5. blackthorn

    blackthorn Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    The other breed wasn't Assaf was it? Was it in Aus? They are a cross between the EF and the Awassi. In the Australian climate the Awassi's are said to produce more, also the EF's that were imported into Aus were breed for over seven years in NZ without much in the way of being milked and once in Aus were graded up with other breeds and so lost some milking ability. The Awassi are form the improved Israel type-some of which produced over 1000L in their native Israel-I'm hoping that some of my various crosses will get into the 300-400L a lactation soon. Sheep's milk is great for allergies. I'm in NSW, but I can fly week old lambs if you are interested.
    Nessa
     
  6. Pacqio

    Pacqio Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    Hi Nessa ... I think I can see where this is headed. Yes, the other breed was Assaf ... was that your ad I was looking at? On the farmstock website ...
     
  7. planigale

    planigale Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    My interest to replace importing dairy into my system was;

    dairy sheep
    dexters
    goats

    so, yes am interested in your post, checked out your website, I am encouraged with your enthusiasm.

    Have, over the years been keeping an eye on the sheep dairy industry and it has always been big time!
    Good to see the application on a smaller holding.
    It fits in with the small community production.

    Do you have links to post for more info on Dairy Sheep?
     
  8. blackthorn

    blackthorn Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    Yep that would've been my add :D Yahoo has a couple of good dairy sheep groups well worth checking out 8)
    Nessa
     
  9. Pacqio

    Pacqio Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    funny little world, aint it?

    I just didnt have the money at the time, but I would have loved to get one of your ewe lambs.

    Do you ever sell older ewes, either in milk or in lamb?
     
  10. blackthorn

    blackthorn Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    I do sometimes have adult ewes, but you're more likely to get a really good result with a lamb :D
    Nessa
     
  11. Pacqio

    Pacqio Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    Why do you say that?

    When I started in dairy goats, I bought mature girls, either in milk or in kid or both.

    Buying week old lambs, kids or calves, you have to put an awful lot of money and time into rearing them before they are producing for you, before you see any sort of return.
     
  12. janahn

    janahn Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    wot is your closest town if a prospective purchaser wishes to inspect your sheep.
    thanks Leo Mahon
    ps also price range and numbers
     
  13. janahn

    janahn Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    hi paqcio my goats are a composite of kalahari, boer, nubian, all natural polls. horns tend to get stuck in fences.

    leo
     
  14. Pacqio

    Pacqio Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    Leo, just curious as to what your daily milk yields for these goats are, and if you had any pictures?

    Do you ever have intersex problems with having a fully polled herd?
     
  15. janahn

    janahn Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    i have selected a diverse range of genetics to build the herd upon. still with foundation does x 2 plus one buck. all offspring to date have been male. once i have several generations of female offspring from buck # 1 i will replace him a high quality dairy buck. remarkably both sets of male twins bred to date contained a natural poll and a horned kid from the same mother/s. new offspring due next month or so. milk yield i have not measured or taken. udders on both does are almost as big as any dairy goat i have seen.

    leo
     
  16. blackthorn

    blackthorn Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    The reason I say that a young animal will do better is that they will be used to you and your climate/environment, adult sheep are more sensitive than goats and will take a lot longer to make friends with you and settle in. Sheep tend to go off their milk completely if moved so you're not gaining much there and you can also lose pregnancy's due to travel stress. We are Nearest to Goulburn NSW sheep prices range from week old ewe lambs @ $70-100, $250-300 for weaned ewe lambs or older ewes. I'm quite happy for people to visit the farm to see the dairy and the sheep, we're not lambing until late June so anytime after that is okay.
    You can email me at: blackthorn_dairy_sheepatbigponddotcom
    Replace at with @ and dot with .
    Nessa
     
  17. helenlee

    helenlee Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    Hi Nessa,

    After spending several months researching & sourcing dairy goats, & then spending a large amount of $$ to purchase the best little herd money could buy, they (or I ...) lasted a VERY short time. I sold them yesterday. They are beautiful, delightful, amusing & a major pain in the nether regions. They are leaving Monday to a fantastic home with owners who have lots of experience with dairy goats!
    Which leaves me milkless . So I googled dairy sheep & came across this thread :)
    Now ... sheep I LOVE ... but have no experience with dairy sheep. I had a bit of a look at your blog, but would like to know more ... can you help?

    Best Wishes,
    Helen
     
  18. Burra Maluca

    Burra Maluca Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    Actually, there's nothing remarkable about that. The genetics for polled goats are such that any fertile polled animal will also carry the genes for horns, so there is always a one in four chance of the offspring coming out horned. There is the same chance, however, of the offspring coming out without any genes for horns, which means that they will almost certainly be intersex and infertile. That's why most breeders always use at least one naturally horned parent if they want to breed from the offspring. If the offspring are just going to be meat, or pets, it's not a problem though.
     
  19. hardworkinghippy

    hardworkinghippy Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    I'm used to goats for milk although the main herd are Angoras but we've recently been given two female Basco Bearnaise lambs and I'm really excited about being able to have other types of cheeses and yoghurt. :D

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    From what I've found out, they're a good all-round breed and give milk for cheese, meat and wool. The breed is a classified Heritage breed for our area. I've been looking around the 'net for other smallholders who have milk sheep to get tried and tested recipes made in small quantities.

    You say the milk tastes just like cow milk blackthorn but I'm Scottish and I love a good cup of tea with milk but I can't stand the taste of goat's milk in tea - do you think the sheep milk will taste OK ?
     
  20. ppp

    ppp Junior Member

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    Re: Dairy sheep? Anyone interested?

    I would be interested in talking to anyone who has a couple of dairy sheep or goats.
    I am completing fencing of my place at the moment... I would also be interested to hear if anyone else around samford (near brisbane) is into it.. the main draw-back of dairying which I can see is what to do when you want to go away for a weekend..
     

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