# Dairy Sheep. Anyone have them



## alsea1 (Apr 12, 2016)

I have dairy goats. Now I am thinking seriously about getting a couple East Friesian/Lacoune cross lambs.
I am curious about what to expect as far as quantity of milk per sheep. Flavor as well.


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## TAH (Apr 12, 2016)

We milked our Kahtadin Dorper cross ewe. We only milked her once. She gave one cup. Her milk was pretty good. It was sweeter than goats milk.


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## TAH (Apr 12, 2016)

Here are a few sheep for sale in eugene oregon. http://eugene.craigslist.org/grd/5477130897.html. 
http://eugene.craigslist.org/grd/5530203449.html. http://eugene.craigslist.org/grq/5530254166.html


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 14, 2016)

I have a 1/4 Friesian ewe (the other 3/4 are Border Leicester, Dorper, and Shetland). While I don't milk her for our consumption, she is a heavy milker and grows fat babies. I did milk her once right after she lambed (I needed colostrum) and she easily gave 12 oz. 

My experience with dairy ewes (with the exception of this cross) was that they had lots of parasite issues.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 14, 2016)

We have some high percentage (>50%) East Friesian ewes, a high percentage ram, and some <50% crosses. I agree that the higher percentages are more vulnerable to parasites and other health issues like pneumonia in the lambs, difficulty lambing (from the multiple births especially), plus they grow slower than a meat sheep. Wool quality can vary as well. Lacaune is a great breed to have in there, but it's also important to know what they're crossed with (most dairy sheep in this country are not 100% anything so if they are telling you 50% EF 50% Lacaune be very very skeptical). Having Dorset, Border Leicester, and other hardier breeds crossed in helps a lot, but you have to make sure their milking quality hasn't decreased with these additions. 

Milk wise I have only ever gotten a quart or so but that was with lambs sharing and I have not dedicatedly milked them yet. They are supposed to produce up to a gallon a day but I have only known true dairies to get close to this number (and they measure by weight rather than volume). 

Sheep milk is AWESOME, very sweet and mild, about a million times better than goat milk.


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## Goat Whisperer (Apr 14, 2016)

mysunwolf said:


> Sheep milk is AWESOME, very sweet and mild, about a million times better than goat milk.


I better not let my girls see this  You haven't had OUR goats milk 


Sorry, couldn't help it


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## TAH (Apr 14, 2016)




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## alsea1 (Apr 14, 2016)

The parasite issue does have me concerned.


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## norseofcourse (Apr 15, 2016)

I've also heard some of the 'official' dairy breeds like East Friesian are higher input, as far as care and feed.  Don't know any personally, though.

I've milked my Icelandics, and will be starting again for the season soon. I'm still a novice at it, and I only separate the lambs at night, but milking 2 or 3 ewes gave me plenty of milk to use and experiment with recipes.  Their milk is sweet and good tasting.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 15, 2016)

Goat Whisperer said:


> I better not let my girls see this  You haven't had OUR goats milk
> 
> 
> Sorry, couldn't help it



Goat people always say their own goat's milk tastes fine! My mouth says otherwise!


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## Southern by choice (Apr 15, 2016)

LOL it is true... some goat milk is 
Usually because of handling then because of it being from a goat.

I have heard sheep milk is great... never had any though


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## InspiredtoHerd (Jun 22, 2016)

alsea1 said:


> I have dairy goats. Now I am thinking seriously about getting a couple East Friesian/Lacoune cross lambs.
> I am curious about what to expect as far as quantity of milk per sheep. Flavor as well.


I milk 4 Fresians and get about 3 gallons a day total (+/-) for the 2 daily sessions. But 1 of those is very young and super finicky about the whole thing so she brings our average down a bit. Right now we feed a bit of wet beer grain with some pellets during sessions, but I'm thinking about trying some molasses mixed in with the pellets for summer since the wet grain is not holding up too well.


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## InspiredtoHerd (Jun 22, 2016)

Oh yeah, and the milk is DIVINE


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