Howdy from North Texas!

[LilTexasHomestead]

Just found this site. Small homestead east of Dallas.

 

[farmerjan]

from Va. Nice barn. See electric netting... what animals do you have?

 

[Baymule]

Welcome from a fellow Texan! I'm just noerth of Tyler, but have sold my farm and am moving to Trinity county. I sure like your barn! I raise Katahdin sheep and have Livestock Guard Dogs. What animals do you have?

 

[LilTexasHomestead]

Hi @farmerjan and @Baymule , we have a small flock of dairy sheep. East Friesian, Lacaune, Awassi mix. Not in the picture above but ever present are chickens who free roam.

 

[Baymule]

Do you make cheese with the milk?

 

[LilTexasHomestead]

Mostly I drink it. Sheep milk is very creamy (far more milk solids) and slightly sweeter than cow milk. I've made greek yogurt, ricotta and mozzarella cheese and kefir. I drink kefir daily. My ewes are dried off at the moment so I'm drinking raw cow milk kefir but the kefir from raw sheep milk is better.

My hubby got me started with dairy sheep. I initially wanted a mini jersey cow but they are so expensive and my philosophy about animals is that you shouldn't keep just one of a variety. We are very limited in pasture. My back 40 is just a back 1 - LOL. That's enough for 5 adult sheep. I'm working to improve the pasture with rotation. Top end, I would love to get my flock up to 7 (4 ewes, 2 rams, 1 wether). My ewes are all expecting so this spring I'll be placing cute lambs. If my big milk producing ewe gives me a ewe lamb this year (she had two ram lambs last year), I'd be tempted to keep her. I've got a pregnant ewe sold to a couple in Colorado so net I'd stay the same at 3 ewes that way. I also have a deposit on a milky line of Finnsheep (ewe and unrelated ram lambs). So that would make 4 ewes, 2 rams and 1 wether (from last season - he has horns which is a bit intimidating for some and not what milk sheep are known for so we wethered him). The wether was supposed to end up in the meat freezer but my hubby used his one 'get out of jail free' card saving him.

I'm finding sheep very addictive.

I may start a herdshare. Not sure if that's a 2022 project yet but it's nice to see that Texas passed a law clearly calling herdshares legal. My goal is to get the milk, in one form or the other, to pay for feed cost. For people who cannot digest cow or goat milk, sheep milk is more digestible. I sold a ram lamb to a gal whose daughter could not tolerate cow or goat milk. But she can digest sheep milk. I have a contact up north in Nebraska whose baby boy is in the same boat. I sent up some frozen milk at the end of the holidays (I have a son who lives in Omaha) and was told that the little boy was able to have the sheep milk.

@Baymule , I saw you raise Katahdins. Some people do milk those. I'm not sure you'd get a lot or for very long but, if you haven't, you might want to try milking one and see what you think.

 

[Alaskan]

Hi @farmerjan and @Baymule , we have a small flock of dairy sheep. East Friesian, Lacaune, Awassi mix. Not in the picture above but ever present are chickens who free roam.

View attachment 89174

DAIRY SHEEP!!!!!!

I have always wanted a dairy sheep!!

Can you post an udder picture? How tiny are the teats?

Oh, and welcome to BYH!

 

[LilTexasHomestead]

This is Dot. Her teats are pretty good. About 2" when in lactation. This photo was from her first year (2021) so this year her teats should lengthen just a bit. Her udder was usually bigger but since I lamb share and pulled her off the pasture for a quick picture (this was a few months ago when I sold her ram lamb) so her udder was bigger first thing in the morning when I had separated the lambs from her. Teat size can be all over the place. My gal Louise is barely over 1.5" in lactation (also first year fresher) but is really easy to milk. So it's teat size, orifice size, and let down that vary. When not in lactation the teats are very small and I have no real ability yet to determine how they'll be when in lactation.

I have smallish hands and sometimes I hand milk and I use my full hand, not just fingers. But I do have a Simple Pulse milker which I love. That takes the issue of teat size out of the equation. And it's very fast. Each of my ewes milk out in about 1 minute. I spend more time with before milk prep of ewes (I want a very clean ewe to milk) than I do with actual milking. Clean up is quick as well.

I LOVE my dairy sheep and I LOVE their milk. It's the best ever!

 

[LilTexasHomestead]

@Alaskan, this is about the finest udder/teat conformation I've ever seen. NOT my sheep. Interestingly, although the big dairy breed is East Friesian (EF), usually crossed with Lacaune and/or Awassi, this photo is of a finnsheep from a dairy line. I've got a deposit on a ewe lamb from a Finnsheep dairy ewe, not the one above but just as impressive along with an unrelated ram lamb from the same dairy. I'm super excited about adding the Finnsheep. They will be a bit smaller than my EF girls (especially Dot who is very large) but produce triplets, quads or more each time. They'll be registered and I will be selling the offspring each year along with offspring from my EF mix ewes.

 

[Alaskan]

View attachment 89183

@Alaskan, this is about the finest udder/teat conformation I've ever seen. NOT my sheep. Interestingly, although the big dairy breed is East Friesian (EF), usually crossed with Lacaune and/or Awassi, this photo is of a finnsheep from a dairy line. I've got a deposit on a ewe lamb from a Finnsheep dairy ewe, not the one above but just as impressive along with an unrelated ram lamb from the same dairy. I'm super excited about adding the Finnsheep. They will be a bit smaller than my EF girls (especially Dot who is very large) but produce triplets, quads or more each time. They'll be registered and I will be selling the offspring each year along with offspring from my EF mix ewes.

Yep, THOSE teats are just right for comfy hand milking!