# Milk and Fiber breed for a family aiming for self-suffiency?



## Nuevomexicano (Feb 25, 2018)

My wife and I would like to get sheep for dairy (primary) and fleece, while processing the surplus lambs for meat. Goats have been recommended to us, and we have had goats, but my wife and I prefer really rich (high butterfat%) milk for drinking and making cheese, which excludes most goat breeds aside from the Nigerian dwarf, which — while lovely — is a tiny animal that gives no more than a quart of milk daily, we would like to have about a gallon and a half of fresh milk daily, and not have to milk more than 3-5 animals to get it. We also like sheep because we enjoy making clothes and spinning fiber, and with goats that either means getting an Angora goat just for mohair, or having to comb out cashmere, dehair it by hand and then purchase wool to blend it with, we don't need super silky smooth merino wool, but we would like a fiber that can be worn on bare skin comfortably as opposed to being no more than felt quality. When it comes to meat, both of us really prefer the taste of lamb to goat, and plan to eat the "spring lambs" as a supplement to the quail and rabbits that we have and the pheasants and chickens that we are getting.

It's my wife, our 2 year old and I, and we are expecting another child in 5 months. We would like to have our sheep by then.

What breed do you recommend?


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## mystang89 (Feb 25, 2018)

I'm raising awassi sheep which are bred primarily for milk and they are wool sheep, not hair. That said, I haven't been able to successfully breed them yet so I can't attest to anything besides the fact they are sheep.


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## Nuevomexicano (Feb 25, 2018)

mystang89 said:


> I'm raising awassi sheep which are bred primarily for milk and they are wool sheep, not hair. That said, I haven't been able to successfully breed them yet so I can't attest to anything besides the fact they are sheep.




Thanks for your reply. I've looked at Awassi and Assaf (75% Awassi/25% East Friesian breed from Palestine) but they don't seem to be widely availiable in the United States, how did you go about finding them and how much did you pay if you don't mind my asking?

When you say that you haven't been able to successfully breed, do you mean that you haven't found a ram for them, that the ewes will not allow themselves to be bred, or that they were covered by a ram but didn't conceive?


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## Baymule (Feb 25, 2018)

Welcome from Texas, glad to have you here on the forum. Congratulations on the coming birth of your baby. Children are the best! We have hair sheep, so no wool and we don't milk them, so I am probably not much help to you. But I wanted to welcome you to the forum.


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## Southern by choice (Feb 25, 2018)

Finn sheep
~dairy
~med to fine wool 
~multiples


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## Nuevomexicano (Feb 25, 2018)

Southern by choice said:


> Finn sheep
> ~dairy
> ~med to fine wool
> ~multiples



Thank you, I had read that they are extremely prolific breeders, which led me to believe that they must produce a good amount of milk (how else could they feed 4 lambs?) but I couldn't find much information about milking them.


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## Nuevomexicano (Feb 25, 2018)

Baymule said:


> Welcome from Texas, glad to have you here on the forum. Congratulations on the coming birth of your baby. Children are the best! We have hair sheep, so no wool and we don't milk them, so I am probably not much help to you. But I wanted to welcome you to the forum.




Hello, I grew up in Harlingen, TX in the valley if you're familiar, moved to Santa Fe about 7 years ago. Thank you, we are so excited!


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## Southern by choice (Feb 25, 2018)

I really don't know much about milking sheep.  I really don't know their length of lactation etc.
They do have very large litters and IMO it is a downside. Whenever they have 4,5,6 lambs you have to supplement.
Higher risk of complications as well... 

I do not think they have very high productivity.


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## Southern by choice (Feb 25, 2018)

I was looking up something for you and as soon as I saw the name I went Ah... that's right... look at Friesian. 
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/sheep/friesianmilk/


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## Baymule (Feb 25, 2018)

Nuevomexicano said:


> Hello, I grew up in Harlingen, TX in the valley if you're familiar, moved to Santa Fe about 7 years ago. Thank you, we are so excited!


I was born in San Benito,  my parents were raised in the Valley. My Mom was a graduate of Weslaco High School. They moved to Longview when I was 2, so all I know about the Valley was when we went to visit family. Haven't been there in many, many years. My husband and I retired and moved to the Tyler Texas area (from Livingston after 30+ years) and we love it here!


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## Latestarter (Feb 25, 2018)

Greetings and welcome to BYH! So glad you joined us. The sheep that I've always heard was best for dairy was the East Friesian sheep.  Maybe something here will help? https://extension.psu.edu/milking-sheep-production  &   http://www.milkingsheep.com/dairy-sheep-breeds/  There's a wealth of info, knowledge and experience shared in the multitude of threads. Browse around and see what interesting stuff you can find. By all means post away when the desire strikes you, especially if you have questions (provide as much detail/info as possible and pictures truly help)... With all the great folks here, generally someone will respond in no time at all. Please make yourself at home!

Oh, if you haven't done so already, PLEASE put at least your general location in your profile. It could be very important if/when you ask for or offer help or advice. You know, climate issues and such. I recommend at least your state as most folks won't be able to figure out where if  you put anything more specific (county, town, street, etc) by itself.  Old folks like me   will never remember & look there first. To add it, mouse hover over Account top right and a drop down will appear. Click on Personal Details and scan down. You'll see the spot for Location. Then go to the bottom and save changes.  Thanks! Hope you enjoy the site!


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## OneFineAcre (Feb 25, 2018)

Who told you that Nigerians " give no more than a quart per day" ?
Mine average a quart and a half ?
Based on the amount of milk you want and you don't want to milk more than 3 to 5 animals they could easily meet your dairy needs
And you won't find any dairy sheep that will milk even close to that
Sounds like you need more than one breed species for what you need


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## Southern by choice (Feb 25, 2018)

@OneFineAcre   I was surprised by this but that is why I came back and mentioned the Friesian... get this-
Quoted from the link I provided a few posts back...
"The German East Friesian Milk Sheep is the best known and most important of the Friesian breeds and is the breed known in the scientific literature as the "East Friesian". It is found in small numbers in many parts of the country as a household milk producer. Litter size in the East Friesian is reported as averaging 2.25 lambs with milk yield o*f 500-700 kg per lactation testing 6-7% milk fat, the highest average dairy milk yield recorded for any breed of sheep.* Wool production is about 4.5 kg per ewe with a clean wool yield of 65% and a fineness of 50/56s / 48/50s (German Ministry of Agriculture). The mature weight of this breed is between 150 to 200 pounds (70-90 kg)."

That is 1100- 1543#!      That is 3.6 - 5 lbs a day (305)    Who knew?   LOL I'm not leaving my goats for sheep but wow, that is impressive (for sheep) BUT that is a lot of animal- 150-200 lbs. 
I had no idea... most of the time you hear about a cup of milk.  
I'll stick with goats.  1 miniature is 100 lbs and will give 7-8# and 2 Nigies would weigh less than 1 Friesian and give probably #6 between the two.  The BF would be very similar. 
I wonder if the Friesian's are expensive?


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## mysunwolf (Feb 26, 2018)

East Friesians are really the only breed in this country worth looking at if you're looking for volume. High percentage EFs are often expensive and people tend to spread misinformation about "pure-breds" and the like. Almost all the EFs in this country have been bred up from imported semen, there were only a handful of originally imported purebreds. Even though they're large, they're docile, friendly, and easy to handle. They are more prone to a number of health issues. Most don't milk that much unless they are a high percentage ewe put under dairy conditions, ie 80+% EF, take away babies at day 2, milk twice a day, put on lots of grain, alfalfa, and pasture. We have 50% EF crosses and love them but they don't milk much, maybe 1 quart a day. Always looking for higher % to add in  Good luck with your search.


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## Nuevomexicano (Feb 26, 2018)

Southern by choice said:


> I really don't know much about milking sheep.  I really don't know their length of lactation etc.
> They do have very large litters and IMO it is a downside. Whenever they have 4,5,6 lambs you have to supplement.
> Higher risk of complications as well...
> 
> I do not think they have very high productivity.




How is it a downside? To me it sounds like more food. We would be taking the lambs off of the ewe almost immediately after they get their colostrum and giving them milk replacers for the rest of their life, unless we decide to keep a ewe-lamb as an addition to the flock.


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## Nuevomexicano (Feb 26, 2018)

Baymule said:


> I was born in San Benito,  my parents were raised in the Valley. My Mom was a graduate of Weslaco High School. They moved to Longview when I was 2, so all I know about the Valley was when we went to visit family. Haven't been there in many, many years. My husband and I retired and moved to the Tyler Texas area (from Livingston after 30+ years) and we love it here!




Very nice, my dad is from Mexico and moved to the valley as a kid, my mami is what they call New Mexico Spanish, from the Santa Fe area. 



Tyler is a nice place.


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## Southern by choice (Feb 26, 2018)

Nuevomexicano said:


> How is it a downside? To me it sounds like more food. We would be taking the lambs off of the ewe almost immediately after they get their colostrum and giving them milk replacers for the rest of their life, unless we decide to keep a ewe-lamb as an addition to the flock.


Cost-  The more lambs the more milk required, if you are using replacer that can get very expensive very quickly. If you use the ewe's milk and she has enough then you just won't have the milk til the kids are weaned. I think lambs wean way faster than goats though. 
We have Dwarfs, Miniatures, and Standard breeds... The dwarfs and miniatures have large litters... birthing risks are far greater because they can get tangled and not presented well. Then we have the issue of a lot of mouths to feed. I'll take twins any day.
Large litters = more cost, more care, more time.


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## SheepGirl (Feb 27, 2018)

There are not a whole lot of purebred EFs in this country. Now EFs are prolifc as well -- not as prolific as Finnsheep, but similar. With the EFs though, I've heard the lambs are more prone to pneumonia. Now is that because they are bottle fed? Or is it an actual genetic weakness? I'm not sure... there may be an answer for you on the internet, but I have not looked it up recently so I don't have a clue. In addition, their wool quality, while producing a large quantity, won't be that great. Reason is is that there will be breaks in the wool due to the high milk production. You will need good nutrition to help prevent wool breaks.

Personally, I think more lambs is better. Even if you do have to bottle raise with milk replacer, you are probably spending around $20 or $30 for each lamb (which would've otherwise been the feed you would've put in the ewe's mouth) plus if you have them trained to a bucket it will only be about 20 minutes of labor a day to clean the bucket and mix fresh milk and you can have them weaned at 30 days. So you are paying just about the same to get the ewe to lamb feed wise, but you are getting bonus lambs (an extra 1-3 that can be raised by 'you' for the same price it costs to have the ewe feed 1-3 lambs herself). Then you can turn around and sell those lambs for $150+ at auction when they are a few months old, or if they're registered finn lambs, then $300+ at weaning.


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## mystang89 (Feb 28, 2018)

Nuevomexicano said:


> Thanks for your reply. I've looked at Awassi and Assaf (75% Awassi/25% East Friesian breed from Palestine) but they don't seem to be widely availiable in the United States, how did you go about finding them and how much did you pay if you don't mind my asking?
> 
> When you say that you haven't been able to successfully breed, do you mean that you haven't found a ram for them, that the ewes will not allow themselves to be bred, or that they were covered by a ram but didn't conceive?



So it it's taken so long to respond. Only internet I have is phone and it's a pain typing a response on it.

I have a ram which has tried to Mom by but for whatever reason either they haven't let him, (ran away) it maybe they let him and I didn't see but he wasn't successful. That's not really anything against this breed just a sheep thing I guess. 

Many people definitely like the East Friesians for milk here in the states but everything I read said they were prone to health issues especially during the rainy season. The awassi have a Hardy Constitution which I felt was better for myself as a new sheep owner. 

They are relatively scarce in the states but I know if at least 3 people who are them. Larry Meisegeier is who I bought mine from. The other person is easy to find on Facebook, can't remember his name and then there's the person who supply Larry.

They are expensive imho. For 3 I paid $2600.


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## lilipansy (Feb 28, 2018)

I don't have any sheep (yet) but have done tons of research on it.  I too would like a 'milky' breed for personal consumption and cheese making.  Everybody knows that goats and the best producers but they are also hard to keep contained, thus, our choice to keep sheep instead.  From what I've read, East Friesian and Lacaune are THE breeds used in Europe for the best production and quality of milk.  There is a guy here in Hawaii that sells EF and EFxL crosses for about $450 so you should be able to find them in the mainland for the same price or less (I would think).  On the down side, I've heard that the EF and L are very meek and fragile breeds (something else to consider).  I think they like cool weather and might suffer in the heat depending on your altitude and are prone to everything. 

Other breeds to consider are Clun Forest and Romneys.  I've heard that the milk is rich and plentiful, the wool is nice and soft, and they are good sized (for meat).  

Someone here also raises angora rabbits for wool (if that would be an option for your soft wool needs).  The wool is unbelievably soft!

Please keep us posted on how things progress for you.  There needs to be more information out there about milking sheep.  Good luck!


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## CaprineDream (Feb 28, 2018)

Personally, I recommend Icelandics. They are much tougher and hardier than EF, can milk 1/2 gallon per day depending on bloodlines, excellent wool but not as soft as some, and generally require no grain to maintain a healthy weight while milking. Plus they're beautiful.


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## chicken little (Mar 1, 2018)

Maybe, Navajo Churros...Very hardy breed and some of the moms are very good  milkers. southwest natives too...wool is generally course...but again individuals have verytough fine, easy to spin wool. We love them


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## Ridgetop (Mar 2, 2018)

I am partial to Dorsets myself.  Have raised them for years as well as Suffolks and Hampshires.  Dorsets are easy keepers, smaller (100-150lbs) and excellent mothers.  The ewes have been used for milking for cheesemaking and their docile temperaments make them easy milkers. The ewes and rams breed out of season which is important for a home rancher since you will be able to breed year round.  Dorsets also will breed and lamb 3x in 2 years.  They are one of the breeds which have been used to produce other high production commercial crosses.    On _good_ pasture the lambs will make butcher weight in 4-5 months without supplements.  Our lambs made 100 lbs at 4 months last ye


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## Ridgetop (Mar 2, 2018)

SORRY ABOUT THE WIERD POST - HERE IS THE CORRECT ONE. 
We raised our family on our own goat milk, lamb, veal (it is not unkind when you raise it  yourself), rabbits, etc. 
We are partial to Dorset sheep.  They are easy to find rather than being one of the exotic breeds, which makes them better priced and the gene pool is larger.  Easier to replace rams (1/2 your flock) when you need to do so.  We raised them for years as well as Suffolks and Hampshires.  Suffolks and Hamps are larger and taller.  They take more feed and really, all that leg length is useless on your plate.  We only had them for the kids to show in 4-H.  We pre commercial Dorsets.  Dorsets make a nice size home carcass.  They are easy keepers (less feed), smaller (100-150lbs), hardy, and excellent mothers.  The ewes have been used for milking for cheesemaking and their docile temperaments make them easy milkers. The ewes and rams _breed out of season_ which is important for a home rancher since you will be able to breed year round.  Dorsets also will breed and lamb 3x in 2 years.  They are one of the breeds which have been used to produce other high production commercial crosses.    On _good_ pasture the lambs will make butcher weight in 4-5 making and their docile temperaments make them easy milkers and easy for youngsters to handle.
Since you are spinners, you will know that wool fibers have "scales" which is the stuff that makes wool able to be spun into strands.  Fibers that are coarser are easier to spin, while the exotics and super soft wools are much harder to spin due to the smaller size of the scales.  Exotics like alpaca and angora have to be combined with a coarser fiber in order to be able to spin it.  Dorset wool is much desired by hand spinners, particularly beginning spinners, because it is easy to spin.  It is a harder wool better for outer wear and really good for socks since it is long wearing.  If you spin it with a super soft wool or exotic fiber, it would be ok, or wear a soft shirt under the garments.
Now, as to milking sheep, there are very few breeds that are suitable for dairying.  Specific milking sheep breeds are hard to find and will be expensive.  For the money they take to produce milk you might as well keep a standard size dairy goat. 
We raised our 4 kids on goat milk from our home dairy. Nubians produce the richest milk, around 1 gallon per day.  If you find someone who is on milk test, you might be able to buy e of their older high producers. Ask to see milk records for the year since all goats produce a lot right after kidding and then their output reduces if they are not milked constantly on a 12 hour schedule.  Some of our high producers used t give 6 quarts daily for at least 5 months, gradually decreasing until we dried off 2 months before they kidded again.  If you want milk production, you need to milk 2x a day, every day during a 10 month lactation.  By staggering their breeding and kidding dates, you will have plenty of milk year round for drinking, cheese and yogurt making, and feeding calves, pigs, chickens, etc.  You can eat the buck kids, while keeping the doe kids to expand your herd.   Goat meat is just as good as lamb, just less greasy.  If you do not want to increase your herd, find a Boer buck to breed your large dairy goats to and you will half Boer kids which will be meatier.   For best milk production do not keep your Boer crosses.  We prefer full size dairy goats since they are taller and easier to handle than having to bend over all the time.
Like Southern says, raising more than 2 lambs means milk replacer.  Lamb replacer will get costly, take longer to put the lambs in your freezer, and really not be as cost productive as 2 lambs at a time, 3x in two years with Dorsets.  Your lambs will take longer to get to market weight since the commercial replacer is not as good as mama's milk or even goat milk.  Many people who raise sheep keep a couple goats for milk to feed orphan or bummer lambs.  Our Nubian goats routinely had 3-4 kids and we used replacer once they were drinking 2 quarts a day.  At 2 months we took our bucklings to auction and at 3-4 months stopped all milk feeding, freeing our daily milk yield of 10-12 gallons for feeding calves.  We did not make cheese but if you are interested in complete self sufficiency using part of your milk for cheese and part to raise a steer would do the trick. 
Whatever you decide, you will enjoy doing it!  Just don't get Toggenburgs for house milk - their milk is not pleasant to drink.  For flavor and high butterfat content we preferred Nubian milk for house use, followed by LaManchas.  The Swiss breeds were ok but I had to make all our Toggenburg milk into chocolate milk before we could drink it.  Since we kept goats for home milk use predominantly, we phased out the Toggs pretty fast. LOL
HAVE FUN!!!
We raised our family on our own goat milk, lamb, veal (it is not unkind when you raise it  yourself), rabbits, etc. 
We are partial to Dorset sheep.  They are easy to find rather than being one of the exotic breeds, which makes them better priced and the gene pool is larger.  Easier to replace rams (1/2 your flock) when you need to do so.  We raised them for years as well as Suffolks and Hampshires.  Suffolks and Hamps are larger and taller.  They take more feed and really, all that leg length is useless on your plate.  We only had them for the kids to show in 4-H.  We pre commercial Dorsets.  Dorsets make a nice size home carcass.  They are easy keepers (less feed), smaller (100-150lbs), hardy, and excellent mothers.  The ewes have been used for milking for cheesemaking and their docile temperaments make them easy milkers. The ewes and rams _breed out of season_ which is important for a home rancher since you will be able to breed year round.  Dorsets also will breed and lamb 3x in 2 years.  They are one of the breeds which have been used to produce other high production commercial crosses.    On _good_ pasture the lambs will make butcher weight in 4-5 making and their docile temperaments make them easy milkers and easy for youngsters to handle.
Since you are spinners, you will know that wool fibers have "scales" which is the stuff that makes wool able to be spun into strands.  Fibers that are coarser are easier to spin, while the exotics and super soft wools are much harder to spin due to the smaller size of the scales.  Exotics like alpaca and angora have to be combined with a coarser fiber in order to be able to spin it.  Dorset wool is much desired by hand spinners, particularly beginning spinners, because it is easy to spin.  It is a harder wool better for outer wear and really good for socks since it is long wearing.  If you spin it with a super soft wool or exotic fiber, it would be ok, or wear a soft shirt under the garments.
Now, as to milking sheep, there are very few breeds that are suitable for dairying.  Specific milking sheep breeds are hard to find and will be expensive.  For the money they take to produce milk you might as well keep a standard size dairy goat. 
We raised our 4 kids on goat milk from our home dairy. Nubians produce the richest milk, around 1 gallon per day.  If you find someone who is on milk test, you might be able to buy e of their older high producers. Ask to see milk records for the year since all goats produce a lot right after kidding and then their output reduces if they are not milked constantly on a 12 hour schedule.  Some of our high producers used t give 6 quarts daily for at least 5 months, gradually decreasing until we dried off 2 months before they kidded again.  If you want milk production, you need to milk 2x a day, every day during a 10 month lactation.  By staggering their breeding and kidding dates, you will have plenty of milk year round for drinking, cheese and yogurt making, and feeding calves, pigs, chickens, etc.  You can eat the buck kids, while keeping the doe kids to expand your herd.   Goat meat is just as good as lamb, just less greasy.  If you do not want to increase your herd, find a Boer buck to breed your large dairy goats to and you will half Boer kids which will be meatier.   For best milk production do not keep your Boer crosses.  We prefer full size dairy goats since they are taller and easier to handle than having to bend over all the time.
Like Southern says, raising more than 2 lambs means milk replacer.  Lamb replacer will get costly, take longer to put the lambs in your freezer, and really not be as cost productive as 2 lambs at a time, 3x in two years with Dorsets.  Your lambs will take longer to get to market weight since the commercial replacer is not as good as mama's milk or even goat milk.  Many people who raise sheep keep a couple goats for milk to feed orphan or bummer lambs.  Our Nubian goats routinely had 3-4 kids and we used replacer once they were drinking 2 quarts a day.  At 2 months we took our bucklings to auction and at 3-4 months stopped all milk feeding, freeing our daily milk yield of 10-12 gallons for feeding calves.  We did not make cheese but if you are interested in complete self sufficiency using part of your milk for cheese and part to raise a steer would do the trick. 
Whatever you decide, you will enjoy doing it!  Just don't get Toggenburgs for house milk - their milk is not pleasant to drink.  For flavor and high butterfat content we preferred Nubian milk for house use, followed by LaManchas.  The Swiss breeds were ok but I had to make all our Toggenburg milk into chocolate milk before we could drink it.  Since we kept goats for home milk use predominantly, we phased out the Toggs pretty fast. LOL
HAVE FUN!!!


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## ohiogoatgirl (Aug 31, 2018)

I grew up with dairy goats and now have sheep, primarily for wool but I am interested in butchering for my own use and a little milking for my own use.

I grew up with problem-animal goats. You put something up and they'd go over, through, under. Goats have their merits and sheep have their merits.

Sheep are a bit more difficult to hand milk. We hand milked our goats (8 does, twice a day and then on my own I had 2 does) so I have plenty of experience there. With goats you can milk until the udder looks/feels empty, massage and bump it a bit, milk out a bit more, massage a little, milk out the last. When you hand milk sheep you HAVE to bump a lot, if not constantly. I think this will vary a little by individual sheep but they do require bumping for the milk to let down. Some ewes might let down easier than others. You can either set a rhythm of several squirts then bump up the udder a couple times, repeat.. Or change the hand motion itself a little and more gently bump the udder between every or every couple squirts. It takes some practice to get a rhythm even when you are a proficient hand milker.

My advice would be to see what is available within your driving distance first. Look up the breed standards for those breeds, just do a search with the breed and 'association' and there will be a standards page on their site. See what you think of the breeds and if you can visit some farms to see them in person, how do they look, how nice is the barns and pastures, do the animals look too big for you to want to handle?
You can milk any breed. Some breeds will tend to be more milky than others (outside of the 'milk breeds') but it seems to depend more on the specific lines of the breeds and what people are breeding for. And if you find some you like you can always breed for and cull for milking quality/quantity.

When you go to look at animals to possibly buy ask about multiple teats. It is culled for in dairy goats but I am seeing it a lot here with sheep and crossbred goats. Sheep have two teats, same as goats. But they often have extra teats that can be anywhere from a big mole sort of thing up to a near full on third/fourth teat that is very in the way and often non-functional, no teat orifice. 
In my experience the most annoying thing to deal with is the little 'dangly' extra teat that is on the functioning teat and it has some form of tiny orifice because it will excrete just enough against your hand as you milk. It drove me batty. Especially on real hot days and now your hand is wet against a hot udder and bugs annoying you.. or on those bitter well-below-freezing days and your hand it freezing..

If I was going to get more into milking.. I would just bring in an East Friesian ram. Of the offspring from him see which ewes build the best udder and produce the most and cull down to those. Continue from there.

If you want the wool that is going to be another consideration. What do you like working with now? What do you not like working with? Make a list of definite yes and no, not finer than X not coarser than X, not bigger than X lbs, etc. Are you planning on sending wool to be milled yarn/roving or processing yourself? As soon as you find sheep you want find the shearers and get names and phone numbers you want on someone's shearing calendar asap in the year!

I have shetlands, 25-75% shetland cross with cormo, 50% border cheviot/shetland, and several mutts. The only one I milked regularly was a mutt. She produced much more than I thought I would get from a non-dairy breed sheep. Depending on how things go this coming year I may train a couple ewes to the stand and try milking some more.

Good luck!


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## Donna R. Raybon (Sep 1, 2018)

Might want to price lamb milk replacer and do the math on what it will cost to raise lamb to weaning???
Sheep can have very  short teats and can be hard to hand milk.  
A friend milking several hundred sheep said they do well to milk ewe for  6 months.  They have high percentage Fresian and have been at it for about 10 years.  milk goes to BlackBerry Farms in Walland, TN.


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