The
University of Wisconsin has the most active university dairy sheep
program in the United States. Dairy sheep research is centered
at the Spooner
Agricultural Experiment Station in the northwest part of the
state about 265 miles from Madison. About 350 East Friesian-cross
and Lacaune-cross ewes are milked in a double 12 parlor. In addition
to research on dairy sheep production, UW-Madison has considerable
research on campus in the processing of sheep milk. There are about
25 dairy sheep producers in Wisconsin, and they will produce about
250,000 liters of sheep milk in 2002. The majority of this milk
is marketed by the Wisconsin Sheep Dairy Cooperative.
View a slide show
of milking sheep at the Spooner Agricultural Experiment Station
Current research projects include:
-
Comparison of East Friesian and Lacaune breeds
for dairy sheep production systems.
-
Relationship between measurements of udder morphology
and milk yield and milking time in dairy ewes.
Recent past research projects include:
-
Comparison of Dorset and East Friesian breeds
for dairy sheep production.
-
Evaluation of different weaning systems for dairy
ewes.
-
Comparison of 3-times-a-day milking and 3-times-in-2-day
milking with twice daily milking in dairy ewes.
-
Milk production of dairy ewes in confinement
or on pasture.
-
Effects of feeding protected fat to dairy ewes
on milk yield and milk composition.
For more information, contact:
Dr. Dave Thomas at dlthomas@facstaff.wisc.edu
Yves Berger at ymberger@facstaff.wisc.edu |
