Why arent we all milking sheep????

roosky

Article today on Agriland: https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/see-how-one-tipp-dairy-farmer-is-getting-well-over-e1l-for-milk/

He has on average 345 euro sales of milk from each ewe and then has the lamb sales on top of that.

A commercial sheep farmer here would do very well to have an income of €180 per ewe......

So is it an option or is this article/farmer bigging it up to be more than it is???

uck51js9zml2yt

Very common in Slovakia and eastern Europe.
They make a soft cheese from it called bryndza.

roosky

I assume the big issue is getting a stable market for it

selectamatic

"They're milking rats"

Sorry op this is all I could think of when I seen the title :P

As said above it's popular in other countries but unless a solid export market could be established it won't really ever be a runner here in Ireland especially since production costs are probably less in other countries where said product is popular.

roosky

selectamatic wrote: »

"They're milking rats"

Sorry op this is all I could think of when I seen the title :P

As said above it's popular in other countries but unless a solid export market could be established it won't really ever be a runner here in Ireland especially since production costs are probably less in other countries where said product is popular.

"You offered me dog or higher" Mayor Quimby !!!

Well if we have the lowest production costs for cows milk I assume we would be competitive for sheep and we could push out the grazing season

Nekarsulm

Forgive my ignorance, but if you are milking the ewe, what feeds the lamb?

Username John

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Forgive my ignorance, but if you are milking the ewe, what feeds the lamb?

From reading that article the land are taken from ewes at 4 days and reared as pets basically, not sure if it was replacer they were fed or not any then killed at 16 weeks I think...

Green farmer

Fair play to the guy. Thinking outside the box and hopefully doing well out of it. Feeling tired even at the idea of spending 6 hours a day milking and the idea of all those pet lambs. Sounds labour intensive, but deserves to be well rewarded for the effort he seems to be putting in.

roosky

Green farmer wrote:

Fair play to the guy. Thinking outside the box and hopefully doing well out of it. Feeling tired even at the idea of spending 6 hours a day milking and the idea of all those pet lambs. Sounds labour intensive, but deserves to be well rewarded for the effort he seems to be putting in.

Farm is set up for donkeys years supplying cashel blue cheese or some of the local cheese manufacturers........im just wondering if it looks so good on the surface why did the last lad leave it

ganmo

roosky wrote: »

Farm is set up for donkeys years supplying cashel blue cheese or some of the local cheese manufacturers........im just wondering if it looks so good on the surface why did the last lad leave it

Crosse is a smart lad, if the figures didn't stack up he wouldn't of gone for it

davidk1394

But the lambs off those ewes would be the same as holsteins. Hard to finish. Seen them before

Green farmer

davidk1394 wrote: »

But the lambs off those ewes would be the same as holsteins. Hard to finish. Seen them before

Never came across those breeds of ewes in the flesh. How come they aren't more popular as a maternal breed of ewe, as you'd imagine you'd have savage lamb growth rates if you put a texel etc on them ?

orm0nd

There's a fellow over in Clare milking Friesland sheep for years, was probarbly 1 of the first to start sheep cheese production in Ireland

http://www.cratloehillscheese.com/index.html

roosky

Green farmer wrote: »

Never came across those breeds of ewes in the flesh. How come they aren't more popular as a maternal breed of ewe, as you'd imagine you'd have savage lamb growth rates if you put a texel etc on them ?

Ounce of breeding or tonne of feeding????

arctictree

Just like anything, he's probably making money because no one else is doing it. If we all started it, the price would collapse!

Green farmer

orm0nd wrote: »

There's a fellow over in Clare milking Friesland sheep for years, was probarbly 1 of the first to start sheep cheese production in Ireland

http://www.cratloehillscheese.com/index.html

Anyone ever tried the cheese ? sounds like theyve carved out a niche for themselves .

uck51js9zml2yt

I've eaten sheep's cheese from Slovakia. Really nice.
My in-laws make their own, along with goats cheese.

davidk1394

Green farmer wrote: »

Never came across those breeds of ewes in the flesh. How come they aren't more popular as a maternal breed of ewe, as you'd imagine you'd have savage lamb growth rates if you put a texel etc on them ?

I don't think the meat is as nice either. A friend got them as pets and fattened them. They had to give all the meat to the dogs

Siamsa Sessions

Had a pint in the local village yesterday evening and the idea of milking sheep somehow came to mind.

We've nearly finished lambing and the thoughts of small returns for the time/effort put in probably had me in an "out of the box" state of mind.

I searched for info on boards.ie here and came across this thread from July, 2016.

Has anyone ever seriously looked into switching to dairy from meat/lamb production? Is a steady market for sheep's cheese, yogurt, etc. still the biggest obstacle?

Cran

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Had a pint in the local village yesterday evening and the idea of milking sheep somehow came to mind.

We've nearly finished lambing and the thoughts of small returns for the time/effort put in probably had me in an "out of the box" state of mind.

I searched for info on boards.ie here and came across this thread from July, 2016.

Has anyone ever seriously looked into switching to dairy from meat/lamb production? Is a steady market for sheep's cheese, yogurt, etc. still the biggest obstacle?

Flock down the road from me milking sheep making cheese, selling it looks as much work as the sheep work tbh. The cheese is fab though

I actually milked ewes in Pyrenees about 7 years ago. Had a house rented and was sheep cheese country and dairy beside us. I popped in one evening & in pigeon French asked if could try, after about 10 minutes fella turned around to me in perfect English ‘it is not your first time working with sheep’😂 their ewes looked more like mules than milk sheep see here

Siamsa Sessions

Thanks for that.

I wouldn’t be great at the selling side of things. Just trying to figure out how to add some value to sheep without having to get to 300 or 400. Upper limit here at the moment would be 100-ish before having to invest seriously in housing

Buford T. Justice XIX

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Thanks for that.

I wouldn’t be great at the selling side of things. Just trying to figure out how to add some value to sheep without having to get to 300 or 400. Upper limit here at the moment would be 100-ish before having to invest seriously in housing

There's friends of mine in Mayo that are milking sheep with a while making yogurt and cheese. They might be worth a visit for a chat, they're very approachable.

http://www.velvetcloud.ie/

The worst thing about it is you will have to process, market and sell it yourself.

charolais0153

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

There's friends of mine in Mayo that are milking sheep with a while making yogurt and cheese. They might be worth a visit for a chat, they're very approachable.

http://www.velvetcloud.ie/

The worst thing about it is you will have to process, market and sell it yourself.

Very nice man alright. Would be in our discussion groups

Green farmer

You’d have to take your hat off to people that start from scratch and create a business from it, marketing their own product and all the work that goes with it.

Dinzee Conlee

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Thanks for that.

I wouldn’t be great at the selling side of things. Just trying to figure out how to add some value to sheep without having to get to 300 or 400. Upper limit here at the moment would be 100-ish before having to invest seriously in housing

I think you’re not the only one that’s trying to figure that one out Siamsa...

Siamsa Sessions

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

There's friends of mine in Mayo that are milking sheep with a while making yogurt and cheese. They might be worth a visit for a chat, they're very approachable.

http://www.velvetcloud.ie/

The worst thing about it is you will have to process, market and sell it yourself.

Thanks for the link. I’ll do some more homework on it and make a few phone calls anyway.

I’m assuming there’s no co-ops like with cows and everyone milking sheep is a stand-alone operator, processing and selling the cheese/yogurt themselves under their own brand.

Hats off to them as Green Farmer said for creating something out of thin air. Must be some work involved getting out there and trying to sell your product in what’s a very busy market these days

Rocketman 23

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

Thanks for the link. I’ll do some more homework on it and make a few phone calls anyway.

I’m assuming there’s no co-ops like with cows and everyone milking sheep is a stand-alone operator, processing and selling the cheese/yogurt themselves under their own brand.

Hats off to them as Green Farmer said for creating something out of thin air. Must be some work involved getting out there and trying to sell your product in what’s a very busy market these days

Hi Siamsa,
I'm just wondering did you ever go any further with milking sheep?
Many thanks.

Siamsa Sessions

Rocketman 23 wrote: »

Hi Siamsa,
I'm just wondering did you ever go any further with milking sheep?
Many thanks.

It’s a while ago now but as far as I remember, it was having to process and market the sheep’s milk/cheese/yoghurt that put me off. I just don’t have the time and I’m interested but not *that* interested.

I tried to sell/market lamb directly last year but discovered there’s too much marketing and logistics involved. Grand if you’re into that, but I just want a simple outdoor life!

wrangler

Siamsa Sessions wrote: »

It’s a while ago now but as far as I remember, it was having to process and market the sheep’s milk/cheese/yoghurt that put me off. I just don’t have the time and I’m interested but not *that* interested.

I tried to sell/market lamb directly last year but discovered there’s too much marketing and logistics involved. Grand if you’re into that, but I just want a simple outdoor life!

I've often said here that selling boxed lamb isn't easy, there was a Organic farmer on IFJ last year claiming to have sold all his lamb privately,
Well I know he doesn't, ICM use our lorries and depots for organics and plenty of them go that way...... even this week
Why guys mislead others I don't know

farawaygrass

Not nice to mislead like that.
I also thing with shearing sheep, you have to shear a few times a year as clik isn’t licensed for ewes producting milk for humans.
I’d say anyone doing it has their work cut out and everything is well earned

Rocketman 23

It's a shame there isn't co-ops for it thanks for the information folks food for thought

sandman30

wrangler wrote: »

I've often said here that selling boxed lamb isn't easy, there was a Organic farmer on IFJ last year claiming to have sold all his lamb privately,
Well I know he doesn't, ICM use our lorries and depots for organics and plenty of them go that way...... even this week
Why guys mislead others I don't know

Could ICM have been processing the lambs for him, which he then collected and sold privately himself?

wrangler

sandman30 wrote: »

Could ICM have been processing the lambs for him, which he then collected and sold privately himself?

He uses a local butcher, but could be as he exports boxes as well