Break out of Framesby Mary Jarvis * 1992, revised 1997 Before you spend your money getting into sheep dairying, you need to spend some time in the planning stages. You will need to put your goals on paper. By doing so, you should be able to determine if this is really what you want to do. You need to ask yourself if this will be a hobby or a business. How are you going to feed them, where are you going to house them, where and how are you going to milk them? You need a business plan, if you want this to be your business. You need to be informed to do this, so you will want to read all the publications available. We have found that Olivia Mills' book, Practical Sheep Dairying, is very helpful. The Alfa Laval Systems Solutions for Dairy sheep is also good. There are several people milking sheep now and it would be good to ask them if you can visit their farms and see how they have set up. By setting up a budget you'll determine if this is affordable for you. Don't expect to pay back your investment in your first year of milking if you are milking a small flock. In calculating your budget figures, be conservative in your yields per ewe and price per pound of milk. A conservative number might be 60 days milking, at 1.5 pounds per day, with a price of $.50 per pound of milk. Be conservative in the number of your sheep that you will actually be able to milk. In a typical flock, maybe only one third to one half of the sheep may be suitable to the milking stand. The rest are usually dropped due to low milk production, udder health, and unmanageable behaviour. You can increase your odds of good milk production by selecting for high pounds of lamb weaned and calm docile animals. Seldom will you be able to milk every ewe on the farm, so don't figure in all of your breeding age ewes into your budget, allow for some slack. If you have access to spreadsheets on the computer, play with some what-if's. What if I can milk for 90 days and get 2 pounds per day, and earn 70 cents per pound. But don't get carried away by this. We strongly advocate keeping your income projections conservative. By this time you've figured out how many sheep you need to milk in order to reach your income goals. Do you have the facilities to make this feasible? Can you build, buy, or rent? Milking ewes on a forage based system have special needs, as do confinement type ewes. A forage based sheep dairy may have different stocking rates than an operation where lambs are the only crop. Your basic needs will be a building you can turn into a milking parlor, and a separate room for handling the milk. You'll need a water source and a drain for waste water. You'll need a sink n the milk room for washing milking equipment, and a sink for hand washing. You will need a bulk tank or other means of cooling the bag of milk between milkings. You will need a hot water heater. You need freezer space to hold the milk in storage until you are ready to ship a substantial quantity. We can store over 2 tons on farm. We bought a commercial freezer and also have a chest freezer. We put our vacuum pump in the milk room to keep the noise in the parlor area minimal. You'll need a vacuum pump and line, vacuum gage and regulator. We milk at 11 pounds of vacuum. You will need a pulsator that will maintain 120 pulsations per minute, the optimal number for sheep. You need a way to hold the sheep still while they are on the milking stand; we use a 12-place cascading yoke stanchion. It is nice to have a measuring jar to be able to see how much milk each ewe gives. You need a milk bucket, lid, milk and vacuum lines, claws, teat cups and inflations. We purchased sheep milking equipment from England, designed especially for sheep, with the milk filter in the bucket lid. We like it. By no means should you consider that ours is the only way to build a parlor! We took an old cow dairy barn and worked with what we had. We find that many doors facilitate getting around. We enclosed the parlor because we wanted to keep it separated from the loafing and holding areas. Had we not enclosed it, the whole barn would have been considered to be the parlor, and would need to be treated accordingly. We lamb in the barn and the sheep seek shelter there during the worst of the winter, so we didn't want to be limited in its use. We built the parlor large enough to add a second 12-place milking platform, planning for expansion. Before you begin to build your parlor and milk room, consult with your milk inspector to get his input on what you need to do to meet the codes. The costs you will incur will be according to how much you can do yourself, what you hire done, and how fancy you want to get in your set up. We did not skimp on the milking machine and stanchion, but the balance was second hand or recycled as much as possible. We spent about $4,200.00 getting ready to begin milking in 1991. In 1992, we added a measuring jar, the commercial freezer and a few odds and ends, and spent an additional $700.00. So we are close to $5000.00. None of the labor was hired out. We have amortized this expense over 5 years; you should not expect to recover your initial investment immediately. After you have accumulated all this information, it is a good idea to step back and evaluate your situation. Is this REALLY for you? Do you have the money to get set up; can you afford to borrow it? Do you have a lender who will listen to your plan and walk away with a straight face? Most lenders dissolve in gales of laughter at the thought of milking sheep. How about your family? Is this a shared goal, or are you going to be alone in the milking parlor day after day for several months? We think it's essential for both of you to be in agreement on your game plan. You should make up a priority list, decide what is important. Do you have a lot of outside activities which will interfere with a milking schedule? Do you take extended vacations now? Can you do so if you are milking? You need to agree on who helps with chores, and how often. If your budget is accurate, you won't need to worry about cash flow, but sometimes you get caught unawares. Do you have a sufficient reserve of cash to see you through the lean times, so that you don't have to make the painful decision of whether to buy groceries or sheep feed.
Have a contingency plan. No matter how careful you are in your planning, you will encounter obstacles, set backs, and cost over-runs. Try to imagine your wildest nightmare and develop a way to circumvent it if you encounter the problem. This is difficult. If you get this far, I fear you are a hopeless case; bound and determined to milk sheep. Now you are ready to select your milking sheep and prepare to get into the sheep dairy industry. Welcome! We feel selection of the animals is very important in making your operation profitable. It is also important to realize that your flock will need more attention and management than some other types of operations. You will be testing for mastitis in your animals; we use the California Mastitis test on a weekly basis. We worm the milking ewes in the jugs; they are not wormed again until they come off the milking stand. You need to be very aware of the fact that you are producing a product which will be consumed by the public. You need to always be conscious of the possibilities of any residues in your milk. You may not treat your ewes with any antibiotics while they are on the stand, including mastitis treatments. Check labels on products you use to be sure that they are safe for lactating animals. Be aware of any fertilizers or pesticides you use, and their implications for residues. We use only manure as a fertilizer, and our farm hasn't seen chemicals in the 5 years we have owned it. To keep the bacteria count of your milk down, it is important to have good milking technique, proper clean up of your equipment, and quick, consistent chilling of the milk.
Sheep dairying is not for everyone. It is not a glamourous lifestyle, nor is it a get rich quick scheme. It will take time for you to develop a flock of sheep whose yields can put money in the bank. If you work off the farm now, you will not be able to quit that job next week! You will need to think to the future and develop a long range plan. It will take commitment on your part, for dairy flock improvement will not occur overnight or even in a few years. We are, however, optimistic for the future of sheep dairying in America. We feel that this is an excellent way to optimize the income potential of your ewes. I hope you find something here helpful - HAPPY MILKING!
Mary Jarvis (affectionately known as Mare) lives with her husband, Rusty, at Groveland Farm in Poplar, Wisconsin. Mare was Secretary and Treasurer of the OPP Concerned Sheep Breeders Society for 7 years. The Society decided to take advantage of the Groveland Farm web site to publish a fact sheet on Ovine Progressive Pneumonia and some other helpful materials. Mare has written numerous articles about sheep dairying for industry magazines over the years, and lectured at sheep conferences. When the Jarvis' were still milking sheep, they won awards for Milk Quality, and they basically wrote the Quality section of the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative's manual. Mare is still a director of the Maremma Sheepdog Club of America, the breed association for the livestock guardian dogs that they raise. Rusty was a board member of the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative, serving as a Vice President. His focus was Quality Control. He also served on the Endangered Species Committee of the American Sheep Industry Association for 4 years, with the timber wolf as his major focus. They raise Est A Laine Merino sheep, llamas, Maremmano-Abruzzese livestock guardian dogs, and Border Collies. You can email Mare at grovelandfarm@superiorwi.com or visit their website for more information. All Animals owns all rights to this article and the photos. You may link to the article (not the photos), but you may *not* copy it, nor reprint it anywhere else. You may print the URL which is www.all-animals.com/milk.html Advertising | Site Design | Site Hosting | About Us | Home | Email |
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