Sheep milk smells like sheep

[Ridgetop]

Why are you washing udders with dish soap? It won't sanitize the udder and teats to prevent mastitis. We milked dairy goats for 18 years and used an iodine udder wash to sanitize udders both before and after milking. Then used a teat dip to seal off the teat orifices and prevent mastitis.

Unless you are using a milking machine you must absolutely strain the milk. I even strained the milk from the milking machine can since you can get hair or dirt in the milk when attaching the inflations. Straining the milk does not strain out the cream. You can use 2 wire strainers and sandwich a coffee filter between them for a makeshift milk strainer. Straining the milk will filter impurities and dirt out. You can't always see the dirt in the milk but it will definitely affect the taste. Also if you have any mastitis it will often show up as flakes in the strainer.

 

[NEWCOMER]

Any of you have that problem? My wife says she doesn't like sheep milk because it smells like a sheep. I can't really find anything online about that so I figured I'd ask here. Anyone else have that problem?

Any of you have that problem? My wife says she doesn't like sheep milk because it smells like a sheep. I can't really find anything online about that so I figured I'd ask here. Anyone else have that problem?

It's true! Sheep milk smells like sheep. It's not a problem for me...but you could try letting it sit in the fridge for a day or two.

 

[mystang89]

It's true! Sheep milk smells like sheep. It's not a problem for me...but you could try letting it sit in the fridge for a day or two.

I've found out that keeping the milking tube extra clean, washing her udder and making sure that milk IMMEDIATELY gets chilled good fashion has seemed to help to lessen, if not completely eliminate the sheep smell in the sheep.

 

[Ridgetop]

Absolute cleanliness has everything to do with good milk flavor. Milk not only takes on the flavor of the food the dairy animal eats, but also will take on the flavor of anything it is in contact with. Keeping your milk equipment spotless is essential, as is udder cleanliness, and straining the milk immediately after milking. Keeping your milk once in a glass container with a tight stopper after straining is best since plastic can breathe and allow refrigerator odors to infiltrate the milk.

Immediate chilling is another necessity. When going to the Fairs I was worried about the flavor of the milk since I used a 2 quart aluminum milk can to store the milk in before returning to the camper at night and transferring it into glass. I found the aluminum can when out into ice water in the cooler actually conducted the ice water temperature better and chilled the milk faster than straining it into glass bottles and putting it into the fridge like I did at home. Our fair milk was delicious.

If your wife still doesn't like the flavor of sheep's milk, use it to make cheese and buy a Nubian goat for house milk. Their milk tastes almost identical to cow's milk, except richer. Since you are milking anyway, adding another milker to your string won't be too much more work. Just be sure to milk the goat first and keep the milk separate. Using the same machine, lines, and inflations - even with sanitizing them in between animals - can give the sheep milk flavor to the goat milk if she is milked last.

 

[Fishychix]

I’m so happy to have run across this thread! I kept wondering “why not sheep?” Why is goats milk everywhere? Now I know. Thanks!

 

[Sheepshape]

Coming very late to this 'party' I would say that sheep milk tastes like very mild goats' milk to me. I HATE goats milk or goat cheese, but am OK with sheep milk or cheese. I have wool sheep only.

Generally, though, I'm only milking ewes to feed to lambs, so the taste really doesn't matter to me at all.