Quick Dips

Sheep Milking

Milking sheep may sound a little odd in a country where farming sheep for their meat and wool, and farming cows for their milk is the norm, but it has proved a successful venture at AgResearch Flock House in the Manawatu. A small-scale commercial sheep milking operation has been running there for eight years.

Research began in 1988, looking into various topics associated with basic farm management and milk yield, such as the best ways of managing lambing, basic udder management, predictors of milk yields, and changes in milk during lactation over different lambing seasons. It appears that autumn and spring lambing is best for production and management.

"The first job was finding sheep which seemed to be good milkers and using these as the base flock for selection," says AgResearch sheep milking expert Louise Gosling.

This research project has since developed into a commercial venture. A total of 750 mixed age Dorset ewes are now milked twice a day in Flock House's 30 bale rotary shed designed specifically for milking sheep.

Milk yield and milking days vary considerably within this flock, but the top sheep can produce up to 260 litres over 180 days, indicating there could be considerable genetic gain to be made through selection pressure within the flock.

The Dorset breed of sheep have traditionally been good milkers, and have the added advantage of mating outside of the traditional season, enabling year-round milk production. However, Flock House also plans to evaluate the East Friesian breed, recently released from quarantine, which are used for milking overseas. East Friesians have been mated with Dorset ewes to assess the breed's management needs and milking potential in local conditions.

Apart from size, Gosling says milking sheep is similar to milking cows, and the Flock House milking shed is run along the same lines as on a dairy farm.

"Sheep adopt much the same behavioural patterns, recognising the noise of the bike which indicates milking time, and standing quietly as they are milking."

The one big difference is wool: ewes need to be shorn and crutched regularly to maintain udder hygiene.

The milk produced at AgResearch Flock House is sold to Kapiti Cheeses north of Wellington, where it is used to prepare a special feta cheese, a unique product for the New Zealand market.

Sheep's milk produces more solids than milk from a cow, with only four litres of milk needed to produce a kilogram of cheese, compared with 10 litres of cow's milk and six litres of goat's milk. It's said that sheep's milk is more allergen-free than cow's milk, although this claim needs further research.

Although sheep milk is thought of as a niche market to complement New Zealand's large dairy cow industry, in many overseas countries sheep milk is more conventional. Sheep's milk is traditionally used in cheese and yoghurt, and is sweeter and milder than products made from the milk of cows or goats.