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

[Latestarter]

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!

 

[OneFineAcre]

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

 

[Southern by choice]

@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 of 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?

 

[mysunwolf]

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.

 

[Nuevomexicano]

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.

 

[Nuevomexicano]

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.

 

[Southern by choice]

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.

 

[SheepGirl]

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.

 

[mystang89]

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.

 

[lilipansy]

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!