Question for you milkers, goat and or sheep

[big brown horse]

I'm going to be getting a dairy ewe soon and I need to know which one to get.

I have a choice b/t an Icelandic or another "cross" of dairy sheep. The main difference is that the Icelandic will provide milk for up to 6 months. The cross will only provide milk for about 4.

I use and drink milk year round. Sheep milk can be frozen, stored (below 0) and thawed without any separation or taste issues. (Do deep freezers even go that low?)

Which one do you think would be best for a small family? I do want to make cheeses and kefir and I have other animals that can use the milk too.

 

[ksalvagno]

I'd go for the one that will milk the longest.

 

[big brown horse]

Yeah, that is what I'm thinking. I may not be ready/qualified to milk for 6 months straight right away, but I would really like to be able to work up to it.

Plus I love Icelandics!

 

[freemotion]

Get a freezer thermometer to check your freezer...it should get to zero.

I predict that one sheep, milked six months, will very quickly not be enough for you! Farm nerd!

 

[patandchickens]

Yup, I think for most purposes it would make sense to pick the one with the longer lactation, as long as you don't mind the extra milking.

Have fun,

Pat

 

[Blackbird]

Yup, that means no vacations!

Did the lady say that is how long they milk or is that just the average length? Most people say that a goat will milk 8 months on average, but our Jenna milked for 15 months and was only dried up because she was bred; I think Monique's Mya was similar.

Never know, you might get lucky!

And I agree, one sheep might not be long enough! Did you get my PM yesterday about the milking water buffalo??

 

[lupinfarm]

Merle, theres a Milking Water Buffalo farm in Stirling XD We have a Water Buffalo Festival!

http://ontariowaterbuffalo.com/

 

[bibliophile birds]

Did you get my PM yesterday about the milking water buffalo??

if one more person talks about water buffalo i'm going to do something drastic!




i want one SOOOO bad. (ok, i want WAY more than one, but one is a start)

 

[bibliophile birds]

Merle, theres a Milking Water Buffalo farm in Stirling XD We have a Water Buffalo Festival!

http://ontariowaterbuffalo.com/

it's so not cool that you posted that site. especially when i saw this:

shouldn't owning water buffalo be a human right? i mean, mozzarella should DEFINITELY be a human right.

 

[hwillm1977]

I'm definitely a vote for the Icelandic...

I've got hubby totally convinced now that when we find our dream property we are starting an Icelandic sheep farm They're by far my favorite breed of sheep.

Do they mean below 0C or 0F for the freezer?

Nevermind... I looked it up... it's -27C

http://www.sheepmilk.biz/sheepmilk.html

In North America sheep dairy producers are few, separated by great distances and producing modest amount of milk daily. Therefore, the collect of fresh milk on a daily basis by a processing plant is economically difficult for the time being. American producers generally freeze the milk until a sufficient quantity is stored for delivery to a cheese maker. Moreover, the production of sheep milk is very seasonal and fresh milk becomes unavailable from October to February. The freezing of milk helps remedy the shortcoming of production. Bastian (1994) at the University of Minnesota, studied the effect of freezing on the quality of the milk for cheese making. He found that the freezing and thawing of sheep milk did not change rennet coagulation properties, compared to fresh, unfrozen sheep milk. Wendorff, (2000) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison tried to determine the storage stability of milk frozen at 2 different temperatures. Samples of raw sheep milk were frozen at -12 C and at -27 C. Samples were thawed at 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months and analyzed for total bacteria, coliform bacteria, acid degree value (ADV), and intact protein. Intact protein was defined as the total protein content of milk minus the protein present in sediment at the bottom of the recipient in which the milk was frozen. Results indicate that milk frozen in a standard home freezer at -12 C was not as stable as milk frozen in a commercial hardening room at -27 C. After 6 months of storage at -12 C, about one third of the casein was destabilized and precipitated out upon thawing. The raw milk stored at the lower temperature was stable up to 12 months. No evident protein precipitation was noticed throughout the study.