Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

What is sheep milk like? I'm nuts about dairy, I love dairy cow products- but I don't like the taste of goat milk in my coffee and I've never seen goat cream to try it. Does sheep milk have a strange taste? What sort of butterfat can you expect from sheep milk? Are sheep easier to keep than goats? Do they make good pets, if you handle them a lot, do they ever get friendly?
Can you keep neutered rams for pets?
And of course the easiest way to do it, can you buy sheep milk anywhere?

Watching this thread.

As much as I love cows milk, I gave it up over a year ago because of inflammation and a few other reasons I won't bore you with.
Goats milk

I'm biased, but sheep milk is the best tasting of all milks! It is sweet and creamy and doesn't have that goaty taste. It is higher in components (fat, protein, etc) than other milks with the fat at 5.5 to over 10% by the end of lactation. It is composed of short and medium chain fatty acids which are healthier and make the butter softer than cows milk. Because it has high components, it makes excellent cheese and thick yogurts that don't need milk powder to thicken it.
Sheep are very sweet animals and like most animals get very friendly if handled when young and treated well ours love to be scratched and fussed over. Food is the way to their heart! They are flock animals so if you want to have any you will need to have at least 2.
Castrated rams, called wethers, make nice pets and are often castrated if they are kept for their fleece.
They are generally easy keepers, surviving well on pasture, hay and a bit of grain unless they're pregnant or milking when they need more. They are prone to internal worms so keeping an eye on worming is needed.
There are lots of breeds to choose from depending on what you want them for, the most popular and common milk breed is the East Friesian.
I would highly recommend them! And they aren't as smart as goats so don't get into as much trouble ; p !

That's great info Brebis, I would love a couple sheep.

Robbie, I have heard good things about camel milk, plus you can ride them.

If i get the fencing repaired this summer, sheep are in the plan...

I was just going to post that in my limited experience looking after a farm down the road that sheep are WAY better in every respect than goats lol. Okay....i had a bad experience with goats. Scarred for life lol. Sheep are sweet like brebis said. And happy to just be. They dont need to get into (or out of) things to be happy. Theyre pretty people friendly and dont smell as bad as goats...lol they also dont eat as many weird things and i never once found a sheep in the tree. I tried goats milk once. Never again. Have to admit i have never tried sheeps milk so....no clue....

TomK wrote:QR_BBPOST If i get the fencing repaired this summer, sheep are in the plan...

Will you drink the milk?

WLLady wrote:QR_BBPOST I was just going to post that in my limited experience looking after a farm down the road that sheep are WAY better in every respect than goats lol. Okay....i had a bad experience with goats. Scarred for life lol. Sheep are sweet like brebis said. And happy to just be. They dont need to get into (or out of) things to be happy. Theyre pretty people friendly and dont smell as bad as goats...lol they also dont eat as many weird things and i never once found a sheep in the tree. I tried goats milk once. Never again. Have to admit i have never tried sheeps milk so....no clue....

Omg! A tree? I just laughed out loud for real.

OK, Brebis thanks, sounds perfect! That would be perfect if the wethers can be used for fleece- I'll have to read up on sheep. JimW I've always wanted a camel though
Brebis are you selling any sheep dairy products from your farm? I'm already planning picking up sunflower seed when I go down to The County and it would be awesome to try some of those cheeses.

I haven't made my own in a while sadly and we did make some sheep cheese last year at Black River but it sold out quickly and we haven't started making any more for thi year.
Depending on where you are, there are a few small sheep dairies around-Milkhouse Farm is near Smith Falls and sell their products at various farmers markets as do Canreg Station near Finch I think. Most are lambing now and would have limited supply except for aged cheeses.
If I hear of some more Around here I'll let you know.