Dairy Sheep Breeds
Dairy Sheep Breeds
In the United States, there are only a few breeds that fit under the dairy class of sheep - and even these are mainly subject to breeding up programs. The East Friesan sheep - one of the more popular and well known breeds - does not actually have a breed association in the United States. There are a few shepherds engaging in wildly expensive breeding up programs, which include importing semen and eggs from overseas and using artificial insemination to create lambs with stronger genetics of the desired breed. However, these lambs usually sell for anywhere from $600-$1,500 apiece. I heard of a ewe selling for $3,00. This is not to discourage anyone wanting stronger dairy genetics - just be aware. If you want the Holsteins of the Sheep world, just know you will have to pay top dollar for them.
The breeds considered as Dairy sheep are East Friesan, Lacaune, Awassi, British Milking Sheep, and Clun Forest. There are quite a few more sheep considered Dairy sheep in the world, but these are the breeds typically ‘available’ in the United States and Canada. There are also quite a few Icelandic sheep being used as dairy sheep, but one must be proactive to find genetic lines with strong milk traits. There are some other breeds who are slowly emerging as breeds appropriate for dairying, as more and more people explore the possibilities of using the sheep that are more easily accessible.
lambs undergoing stanchion training
Lets talk about what makes a dairy sheep a DAIRY SHEEP - as opposed to a meat breed or a wool breed. You will find in the shepherding world that there are quite a few multipurpose breeds - very few meat breeds don’t produce wool, and all sheep lactate when bred. So its important to define some terms and parameters about what we mean when we say ‘dairy sheep.’
First, lets talk about sheep udders. Unlike cows or goats, most sheep typically have teats on the side of their udder rather than on the bottom. This makes it a bit awkward for milking because one must move the udder and teats into the proper position for the milk to strike the milking pail, rather than the wall, the cat, the sheep, your face, etc. Additionally, their teats range from the sizes of baby carrots to jellybeans. This makes hand milking a rather harrowing experience, as there is little to grab onto. Lambs make it work, obviously, but a mouth and tongue are capable of maneuvering in ways that fingers often aren’t.
Dairy sheep have been selective bred for more manageable udders with more grabbable teats. The teats are typically uniform in their largeness and the udders don’t require weight lifting to maneuver over a bucket. This makes milking a far more pleasant experience for the dairy shepherd.
Next, lets talk about lactation length. Dairy breeds can lactate up to eight months, whereas other breeds typically lactate for more like 4-6 months, depending on breed, feed, weather, and babies. Dairy breeds will continue lactating when the lambs are removed, wheras other breeds - especially primitive breeds - will begin drying up as soon as lambs are removed no matter what you feed them. Furthermore, dairy breeds have been selectively bred to produce more per milking - anywhere from a quart to a quart and a liter. Non dairy breeds will hover between a pint and a quart.
Dairy breeds seem to have lower butterfat content than breeds who produce smaller amounts of milk, but this is just my observation and not based on any kind of studies done by experts or scientific data. This dynamic is true across the board of lactating mammals - cows and goats also have breeds who produce more volume of milk with a lower butterfat percentage, whereas the breeds who produce smaller milk volumes seem to have higher butterfat.
Finally, dairy breeds tend to have better personalities when it comes to interacting with their humans. All sheep require a period of establishing who is their shepherd and how much trust exists between them, but dairy breeds seem to require far less time in this area. Compared to my Gulf Coasts, who still refuse to enter the barn unless its made clear its the barn or the freezer, dairy sheep practically have table manners and say ‘please and thank you’ without being reminded.
Now that we have a description of what makes a dairy sheep a dairy sheep, I ought to give this disclaimer. Its been a fairy recent phenomenon in Agricultural History that Breed associations were established with breed standards. Two hundred years ago or so, if you asked a farmer what breed his animals were, not many would be able to tell you. Animals were known for what they offered and where they came from, but the persnicketiness of our current era did not for the most part exist between ‘breeds.’ Now clearly you had cows that were known for rich cream and cows that were known for rich beef. But few crofters or pioneers really cared about if their cow was a registered milking Devon - they just wanted to know that animal was hardy, could forage, make it through winter, make healthy babies, stay healthy, make milk, have the sense to come in out of weather and stay away from predators. Dumb animals typically got eaten by something and there wasn’t a lot of spare time to bicker about if that particular shade of brown disqualified them from being entered into a breed association.
Nyuszi, a half Gulf Coast half Border Leicester, and Stella - a Milk Mutt with East Friesan and Zwartbles genetics - being halter broken
That is all important to say for the fact that when one does any kind of deeper study on the various breeds of sheep, typically one will find a note somewhere about how that breed was at one time milked. Longwools seem to generally have a decent amount of milk. My Border Leicester didn’t seem to have any kind of udder worth speaking of, but she had big beautiful teats so I milked her. Shockingly she produced more milk than my dairy mutts. When doing research on Border Leicesters, I usually found a notation that they had historically been used for milk - but that was all. No one really commented on who milked them or when or why or what the milk was used for. Black Welsh Mountain sheep are the same way. Lots of off-handed remarks of how milky they are but no one really talks about which welsh farms milked them or why. Interestingly there are quite a few welsh sheep dairy product companies popping up on Instagram. I am hoping to find some way of contacting them and finding out which breeds of sheep are they using - traditional historical breeds or the more conventional East Friesan or other dairy breeds.
Icelandic sheep were historically milked in Iceland, but its only been in the last few years that one sheep dairy has opened up there. Before that when I read descriptions on the breed, I typically found notations saying that the American strains of Icelandic sheep were still milky, but the sheep now found on Iceland have had all milkiness bred out of them and are now strictly used for meat and wool.
Finn sheep have recently appeared on the scene as an American dairy sheep breed as their propensity for having litters of lambs makes them incredibly milky and shepherds have begun taking advantage of this. Again, one must be careful about which bloodlines one gets and always ask the shepherd for pictures of the udders of the mother, as not all Finn sheep have udders or teats that will be pleasant to hand milk - and not all machine milkers can handle every udder.
All that to say, when it comes to dairy sheep breeds there aren’t a lot of options but quite a few possibilities. It is not strictly necessary to limit oneself to a conventional dairy breed.
For those curious, these breeds are:
East Friesan - this is probably the most commonly known dairy sheep breed. They are famous for their ‘rat tails’ which don’t have wool. They are a larger breed and very docile, but healthwise also very fragile. So when looking at this breed please keep in mind that you are exchanging hardiness for temperament and milk production. They really need babied especially when it comes to parasites and weather related maladies.
They can produce a liter of milk per day or more - some shepherds have reported almost a gallon being produced by ewes with very careful feeding and management. Most dairy sheep in American have EF genetics somewhere in their family tree.
They produce wool that is not very soft, but I have found makes excellent outerwear. You will soon find that I am a bit of a wool connoisseur and do not limit myself strictly to Merino wool. I should probably make a blog post about that but suffice it to say that not all wool described as ‘rug yarn’ need be limited to just rugs. And not all sheep of ‘rug yarn’ breeds produce rug yarn wool. I have a friend whose East Friesan sheep make delightful soft pillowy yarn that I make delightful socks, gloves, hats, and farm sweaters from. I maybe wouldn’t make a cowl, scarf, or baby clothes from it, but that’s ok. I sometimes need something that isn’t so soft it pills the second I cast the project off my knitting needles like Merino does. Ok. End of wool rant - back to sheep breeds.
My basket of sheep dairying supplies - I was keeping the different ewes milk separate at the time as they were in different stages of transitioning from colostrum to milk
Awassi - this breed is getting more and more press amongst the Homestead Dairy Shepherds that I know. Sadly there are very few breeders in the United States, and those that are available have very long wait times and the animals are expensive. They have a higher butterfat content than East Friesans and since they hale from more Middle Eastern climates are better suited for hot and dry climates, whereas EF do better in colder climates (that being said, I know some shepherds have high percentage EF in Florida). The Awassi’s Ive met have been far more stand-offish than other dairy sheep and seem more alert to potential predators than other breeds of sheep are. I don’t have the exact numbers at this time on how much milk they can produce in a day, but I believe it runs in the liter per day area.
Their wool is incredibly coarse and has historically been used for weaving or felting. That being said, I would’t mind a winter coat made from Awassi fleece. Since most shepherds interested in Awassi’s are in very hot climates, they usually don’t need a lot of hats, gloves, long underwear or scarves to wear during winter chores. So the wool is typically made for weaving gorgeous rugs.
Assaf - This is a combination breed between Awassi and East Friesan. The main breeder of this combination is Andy Karras of Karras farms. I believe it was created to have better fleece and temperament than the Awassi but more hardiness than the East Friesan. I honestly don’t know much about this breed as I do the others, so that’s all I will say about it for now.
Icelandic - The Icelandic breed, I am coming to find out, is rather controversial. It has been touted as a great sheep for small farmers because of its hardiness, dual coated fleece, and excellent mothering skills. Its definitely a small farm, small business kind of breed. The wool is not a kind that all mills are equipped for due to the fact that there are two types of fleece on each animal. With hardiness and survival skills seems to come skittishness in all sheep breeds. And not all Icelandics are super hardy. Again, its a wise thing to That being said, you either love Icelandics or you can’t stand them.
Family lines, as previously stated, are important if selecting Icelandics for milk. I can’t tell you which family lines are the milky ones, but I believe that would be a good question for a breed association. I also am not familiar with how much milk they produce per day. I would think it would be safe to assume they are more in the quart- to - liter range, depending on genetics and feed.
Since they are a primitive breed, they usually need some work before they are super workable. Clearly there are exceptions to the rule and I’ve heard of Icelandics behaving more like friendly goats than sheep, and I’ve heard of Icelandics so skittish they put Barbados Blackberry sheep to shame. So if you are interested in them, make sure you get to know some shepherds who already have them and spend some time on their farm getting to know them.
The wool as I’ve said is dual coated - meaning they have long outer hairs and soft underdown. The Icelandic people have a whole system of how to process this fleece and each yarn is named something different. If both fleeces are spun together its lopi, if its the outer coat that wool is called Tog and the soft underdown is Thel. Historically they have made entire outfits out of each fleece and as you can see by my wordiness on the subject, I find it fascinating. But it is wool that requires some homework and, if using a mill, a good relationship with the mill owner who will have to learn how to process it if they don’t already know.
Finn - I will confess my only experience with Finns is a fleece a friend gave me that spun up into a delightful silky skein that I fell in love with. I do know that Finn sheep are known to have multiple lambs - anywhere from 3-6 lambs per lambing. The few people I know with Finns really love them but I also know you have to be super selective over what family lines and genetics you are getting to make sure their udders and teats are some that you can find manageable.
Clun Forest - I was honestly unaware of this breed being considered a traditional dairy breed until just recently. So I honestly do not know anything about them yet, and will have to do a follow up post on them!
British Milking Sheep - From what I understand, this breed is available in Canada but not the USA. I’m happy to be wrong about that though so if you are a BMS shepherd in the United States, please email me and educate me!
Zwartbles Sheep - I’m unsure who is breeding these sheep in the United States but I have a ewe in my flock with Zwartbles genetics. They lookin in appearance just like black East Friesans with a white stripe down their nose, and from what I can tell, are genetically black East Friesans haling from the Holland/Friesland area of the globe.
Lacaune - Again, I’m not as familiar with this breed but from what I can tell from trolling the Homestead Dairy Sheep Facebook board, they are a French dairy sheep who shed their fleece… I think? I don’t think they are a hair sheep but I haven’t delved into this breed very deeply yet. Once again, I’ll probably have to do a follow up post on the breed as I learn more - and if you or someone you know raise them, please shoot me an email as I would love to learn more! I do know that certain cheeses in France are specifically from Lacaune sheep - I believe Roquefort cheese is one of them…
Our Border Leicester Sandra, and her ewe lamb Nyuszi. We let the lambs play around the stanchion when they are young as the first step towards stanchion training. They pick up on what we want very easily when they are older and makes for a much easier milking experience when they are older.
As I said there are other sheep breeds in the world categorized as Dairy Sheep, but these are the ones I’m aware of and that are available in some form or fashion in the United States. If you are in the United States and indignantly not finding your particular breed being described, by all means send me a (nice) email at whoopsydaisyfarm@gmail.com and lets talk your breed!
Next up in topics - non-dairy breeds and why you would want to milk them.
