Site Location: Main Page > All About Sheep > Friesian Dairy Sheep
Table of Contents
Why Dairy Sheep?
- More sheep were milked world-wide than cows in 1989
- Each year sheep cheeses valued at more than 10 million dollars are imported, mainly from France and Italy, to North America.
- Some of the world's most famous cheeses, such as Roquefort, Feta, Ricotta and Pecorino Romano were originally made from sheep's milk.
- 16,000 tonnes of Roquefort is made in France each year from 1 million dairy ewes. Less than 10% is exported.
- 560,000 tonnes of ewes' milk is produced each year in Greece. End products include yoghurt, feta cheese and butter.
- 16 million ewes are milked each year in Morocco.
- Ewes' milk is very important in Israel where the hardy Awassi, a fat-tailed sheep, or the Assaf, an East Friesian Awassi cross, are milked. These sheep flourish where cows can not survive.
- Sheep's milk and milk products are delicious, nutritious and digestible.
- Some of the oldest people in the world today are shepherds in Eastern Europe who subsist mainly on sheep products.
Return to:
East Friesian Dairy Sheep General Information
- Most productive dairy sheep breed in the world
- Origin - province of Lower Saxony in Germany
- In 1530 East Friesians are mentioned in the Vatican Archives as larger than other sheep and able to raise up to 5 lambs.
- White or black wool of medium texture, 30-37 micron count, 52-54 Bradford count, 12 lb (5.5 kg) wool/ewe/yr
- Clear of wool around the face, legs and under the tail
- Black wooled East Friesians are reputed to be hardier
- Polled with long, forward pointing woolless ears, long, thin bare tail
- Large framed with better than average carcass characteristics
- Very lean meat
- Mature ewe weight - 187 lb average (85 kg)
- Ewes have wide, well separated udder with downward directed teats
- Calm disposition - easy to work with
- Prolific - average lambing percentage 230%
- Breed out of season
- Weight gains to 100 days (average) - 0.73 lb/day (0.33 kg/day)
- Milk production (average animal) - 160 gallons (600 liters)/220-230 day lactation. Exceptional animals may produce 396 gallons (1500 liters)/lactation.
- Average milk fat - 6%
- Average total solids - 18%
Return to:
East Friesians in New Zealand
- A recent report by a New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture consultant indicated that introduction of East Friesian genetics into the New Zealand flock could increase net sheep farming profits by 70%.
- Purebreds and crosses have thrived in New Zealand on grass alone
- In New Zealand, 2-yr-old East Friesian ewes averaged 470 lb in their lactation (ON GRASS) compared to 220 lb for other breeds (Border Leicester and Romney).
- In their current lactation (1996), East Friesian ewes have milked 170 liters in 116 days and are still producing 1.15 L/day. Border Leicesters produced 90 liters in 116 days and are down to 0.6 L/day.
Return to:
Current Uses of East Friesian Genetics in North America
- Dairy sheep industry - used for milk production either as purebreds or crosses
- Commercial flocks - used to increase milk production so ewes can raise more lambs unassisted, to increase prolificacy, and to improve carcass characteristics (East Friesians are leaner than Texels)
Return to:
Crane Creek East Friesians
- Introduced genetics in 1995 as frozen embryos from Canada. Embryos came from OPP negative closed flock.
- Our flock is OPP tested negative, footrot free, vaccinated for Vibrio and Chlamydia and Clostridium perfringens types C and D and tetanus.
- We are participants in the voluntary scrapie flock certification program.
- All rams tested for semen collection have been Brucella ovis negative, bluetongue negative and OPP negative.
- Various bloodlines are available.
- East Friesians are being milked in the Canadian flock of origin and we have genetics available from the bloodline milking most heavily in their first lactation.
- Frozen semen will be available in the late fall of 1996.
- Ram lambs (purebred 100% East Friesian) are available now ($2500 - $3000) and in 1997, all going well, there will be ewe lambs for sale.
- For details on animals for sale, please contact S. Mitcham at below address.
Return to:
Friesian Dairy Sheep Info provided by:
Back to the page.
|
|
|
