19 April 2021
Wales’ ability to grow high quality grass could make it better placed to produce milk from sheep than regions with high numbers of dairy flocks.
Anglesey sheep farmer Huw Jones, who is aiming to establish his own flock of dairy sheep, has been on a fact-finding visit to France supported by the Farming Connect Management Exchange Programme.
Mr Jones currently has 200 breeding ewes but wants to diversify into sheep milk production.
This industry is relatively common in France where farmers add value to the milk by producing cheese.
In France, Mr Jones visited farms to gain a better understanding of the sheep milk market and ewe management within a productive year.
Here he found that farmers mostly milked their flocks in the morning and produced cheese for the rest of the day.
Some fed sainfoin grass and lucerne to sheep in their dry period.
He also learned that:
• Sheep don’t have to be milked twice a day – the farms that he visited milked once a day
• Most farmers milk their sheep for seven months of the year
• Milking 50 sheep in France provides a living for one person
• Cheese and yoghurt are the most common produce
“In my opinion, the Welsh climate is better suited for dairy sheep than the south of France as we can produce top-quality grass,’’ says Mr Jones, who lives at Llanerchymedd.
But he warns that farmers must have a market for the milk before they start producing.
Mr Jones would like to see UK supermarkets do more to educate consumers about the sheep’s milk products they sell, mainly in the form of yoghurt and cheese.
Based on his study, Mr Jones now plans to take his ambition forward.
“I believe that diversifying into sheep milking is a good idea as it’s a relatively low investment, generates significant gross margin and the market for sheep’s milk produce is growing,’’ he says.
Farming Connect, which is delivered by Menter a Busnes and Lantra, has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.