Dairy sheep questions

[horsesrabbitsbirdsanddogs]

In the future I'd like a couple dairy sheep just for myself and my family. I have a few questions and any information is appreciated.
The points I'm looking for in a breed are easy lambing and high fertility, temperature flexibility (summer here is 30c and winter is -6c), disease and parasite resistance, and easy to maintain good condition on a grass fed diet. They could be crossbred or pure.
Would it be best to get a bottle fed lamb and train it to be easy to handle for milking or is it better to try tame a adult?
How many sheep? (family of 3 adults and 2 children)
Would it be okay to house the sheep with our horses?
Thanks

 

[spin cycle]

looking forward to replies on this thread

most adult sheep will get very tame very quickly if bucket fed breed wise you could go high milk yield friesland or lacaune thru to lower milk yield poll dorset/llyen.......zwartables might be good shout in middle

 

[sheepdogtrail]

I have some thoughts. Which I rarely do these days as the sun and heat seem to just take everything from me.

I would like to get some more info.

What are your plans for the lambs?
What are your backup plans for the lambs?
What are your backup, backed-up plans for the lambs?

What will you do with the milk?

Regarding keeping the sheep with horses. It could work or it may not work. Depends on the horses and the sheep. At lease initially I would keep them apart and see how they react around one another. I would suspect milk yield would be lower as you would be feeding lactating ewes and horses the same thing.

You have lots of options.

 

[horsesrabbitsbirdsanddogs]

I have some thoughts. Which I rarely do these days as the sun and heat seem to just take everything from me.

I would like to get some more info.

What are your plans for the lambs?
What are your backup plans for the lambs?
What are your backup, backed-up plans for the lambs?

What will you do with the milk?

Regarding keeping the sheep with horses. It could work or it may not work. Depends on the horses and the sheep. At lease initially I would keep them apart and see how they react around one another. I would suspect milk yield would be lower as you would be feeding lactating ewes and horses the same thing.

You have lots of options.

The ewe lambs would be kept as replacements or sold, and all the males would be sold. As long as I don't pay their feed bills I can tolerate not getting much for them.
Backup plan : Sell them really cheap
Backup backup : This would only be small scale and we have a huge amount of land, so we could likely afford to keep them until they get sold as more of an inconvenience than serious problem, but I will need to come up with a better plan than this.
I would use the majority of the milk for yogurt/cheese/butter but still have some as just milk.
Thankyou for the information.

 

[spin cycle]

re horses + sheep

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

If you want to milk sheep then you need the right breeds to do it.
Lacune is the best but Friesland will also fit the bill.
Much easier to machine milk these than try to hand milk. Bets milked twice a day and put all the surplus into cheese, soft or if you have patience hard. You need a pig or two to use the whey.

Plenty of milking sheep kept in Eastern Europe that survive in the temperature conditions you describe. Lamb in March and milk through until end of October.

 

[Werzle]

Lad on s4c farmio last night milking sheep, i couldnt get over the amount of lame ones hobbling to and from the impressive parlour he had imported.

 

[sheepdogtrail]

The ewe lambs would be kept as replacements or sold, and all the males would be sold. As long as I don't pay their feed bills I can tolerate not getting much for them.
Backup plan : Sell them really cheap
Backup backup : This would only be small scale and we have a huge amount of land, so we could likely afford to keep them until they get sold as more of an inconvenience than serious problem, but I will need to come up with a better plan than this.
I would use the majority of the milk for yogurt/cheese/butter but still have some as just milk.
Thankyou for the information.

Are you in the UK?

Lamb milk replacer is not cheap. Could very well be 100 quid per lamb with supplies and someones time before you got them out the door. That could be ok with you, not sure. But just wanted you to be aware of that.

Ideally, you have found the lambs new homes before they are even born. The lambs need to spend at least a month with their mums before weaning. All the mums milk should go to the lambs for the first month. Longer if possible.

You could also get a Guernsey cow who is lactating and jazz up her milk a little to get it to lamb specs and use that instead of a powdered milk replacer.

You will want to test the cow to make sure she is not passing Johnes along to your sheep. Two test at a minimum. Three test spread out would be better. Then you also want to test the ewes before you bring them to the farm, to make sure they are healthy and not carrying a time bomb that will go off during lactation or some other time.

Butter could be difficult from some of the more traditional long lactating dairy breeds. The butter fat is just not there at levels to give a you a really good product. The Clun Forest (look at the wiki entry) breed of sheep has the highest amount of butter fat of any known and tested breed of sheep. Lactation in a Clun is considered medium in duration (4 - 5 months) so you could cross those ewes with a traditional long lactating breed and maybe have the perfect sheep for your needs. Some sheep milk and cheese producers also cut in some Guernsey milk for the added fat. For your own use, this is fine. It makes a fantastic product. If you plan to market it, you will need to disclose it on the label.

If available also consider:

Assaf
Awassi

and cross them with something like a Clun or traditional milk sheep.

The Kiwis have been working on something called the Southern Cross. That might give you some ideas on how to get to where you want to be.

 

[horsesrabbitsbirdsanddogs]

Are you in the UK?

Lamb milk replacer is not cheap. Could very well be 100 quid per lamb with supplies and someones time before you got them out the door. That could be ok with you, not sure. But just wanted you to be aware of that.

Ideally, you have found the lambs new homes before they are even born. The lambs need to spend at least a month with their mums before weaning. All the mums milk should go to the lambs for the first month. Longer if possible.

You could also get a Guernsey cow who is lactating and jazz up her milk a little to get it to lamb specs and use that instead of a powdered milk replacer.

You will want to test the cow to make sure she is not passing Johnes along to your sheep. Two test at a minimum. Three test spread out would be better. Then you also want to test the ewes before you bring them to the farm, to make sure they are healthy and not carrying a time bomb that will go off during lactation or some other time.

Butter could be difficult from some of the more traditional long lactating dairy breeds. The butter fat is just not there at levels to give a you a really good product. The Clun Forest (look at the wiki entry) breed of sheep has the highest amount of butter fat of any known and tested breed of sheep. Lactation in a Clun is considered medium in duration (4 - 5 months) so you could cross those ewes with a traditional long lactating breed and maybe have the perfect sheep for your needs. Some sheep milk and cheese producers also cut in some Guernsey milk for the added fat. For your own use, this is fine. It makes a fantastic product. If you plan to market it, you will need to disclose it on the label.

If available also consider:

Assaf
Awassi

and cross them with something like a Clun or traditional milk sheep.

The Kiwis have been working on something called the Southern Cross. That might give you some ideas on how to get to where you want to be.

Nope, I am in New Zealand
The milk replacer here isn't cheap either, its roughly 10 NZD per kilo (I think that is 5 pounds per kg for you). Although I couldn't find the exact amount of milk replacer one lamb would consume, add on the supplies and it would indeed be expensive. A Guernsey is an idea that I will consider and testing will be a must.
Unfortunately I do not think Clun sheep are available here. Assaf and Awassi are though, and I often see crosses between traditional milk sheep.
I've did a bit of research on the Southern Cross sheep, very interesting read and it does give me more understanding of what goes into it.

 

[sheepdogtrail]

Nope, I am in New Zealand
The milk replacer here isn't cheap either, its roughly 10 NZD per kilo (I think that is 5 pounds per kg for you). Although I couldn't find the exact amount of milk replacer one lamb would consume, add on the supplies and it would indeed be expensive. A Guernsey is an idea that I will consider and testing will be a must.
Unfortunately I do not think Clun sheep are available here. Assaf and Awassi are though, and I often see crosses between traditional milk sheep.
I've did a bit of research on the Southern Cross sheep, very interesting read and it does give me more understanding of what goes into it.

1 Kg = 2.2 lbs.

Are you on the North Island or South Island?

You are correct. The Clun is not a option in NZ. I think the Southern Cross is worthy of your time to consider. A lot of work went into that to create a sheep breed that could hit the Chinese sheep milk market.

Luckily, you are in NZ which gives you better access to folks who have been doing it a while.

Good luck.

 

[horsesrabbitsbirdsanddogs]

I'm in the North. The Southern Crosses will be something I will consider. Thankyou

 

[Woolless]

Why sheep instead of goats?

 

[horsesrabbitsbirdsanddogs]

1) The use of a lot of the land at the moment is trees, and goats are more likely to bark the trees than sheep I think
2) I have heard sheep are less likely to be escape artists than goats with our flimsy E fences
3) I don't know why, but my family just doesn't like the taste of goat dairy products or milk so we couldn't use it for ourselves