Sheep - AgRIS

14. Milk Production
14.1 Production level
Sheep have been used for milk production since ancient times. World production of sheep
milk in 1979 (FAO) was 7.328 million tonnes as compared to 6.958 million tonnes of goat
milk. However, in India, though production of goat milk is 0.65 million tonnes, production of
sheep milk is negligible inspite of there being over 40 million sheep as compared to 70 million
goats. This is especially striking when we see country like Turkey which has 41.5 million sheep
producing 1.08 million tonnes of sheep milk per annum. Thus sheep production for milk has
been a greatly neglected sector of animal husbandry in India. The matter of milk yield in sheep
has received scant attention in India, but some studies that have been made indicate that the
quality of milk with respect to its fat content varies widely among individuals within breeds,
and this seems to be more pronounced than variations between breeds. There is also a great
variation in the milk of an individual at different periods during lactation and vary probably
during different lactation periods.
France is the leading country in the world as far as milk production from sheep is
concerned. In Southern France in 1951, 33 million litres of sheep milk were produced from
600,000 ewes, while in 1978,59 million litres of milk were produced from the same number of
ewes. This was because the annual milk yield per ewe increased from 55 litres to 100 litres
(Flament & Morand-Fehr, 1982.)
14.2 Milk composition
Data indicate ewe's milk to have a considerably higher average fat content than Goats' milk
(Table 14.1). Ritzman showed that 158 samples from a great variety of ewes ranged from 2.4 to
12.1 per cent in fat content and averaged 6.0 per cent. But observations of the growth of lambs
support the statement that the amount of milk yielded bythe ewes is of more consequence than
its quality if this is not too far from average.
Table 14.1 Average composition in g/lit.
Dry matter Fat Lactose Proteins Ash
Casein Albumin
Goat 115-135 25-45 40-45 24-30 4-6 7-9
Sheep 170-185 55-70 43-50 45-50 8-10 9-10
14.3 Milking frequency
Milk yield in Deccani flock ranges from 0 to 1000 ml per day (milked twice), the average
appearing to be around 300 ml . Jaisalmeri ewes yield about half litre of milk daily which is
used for ghee making" (Mittal and Shivprasad, 1987).
Gatenby (1986) has reported millc yields of sheep in the tropics and sub-tropics, which is
reproduced in table 14.2 and 14.3.
Table 14.2 Milk yields of selected breeds in India
Breed Yield kgiday Period measured (days)
Avikalin 0.45-0.47 92
Chokla 0.46-0.51 90
Jaisalmeri 0.40 90
Malpura 0.50-0.60 90
Meriono 0.70 112
Nilgiri 0.65-0.67 112
Table 14.3 Milk yield of selected breeds subtropied
Breed Country Yield kg day Period measured (days)
Assaf Israel 1.34 156
Assaf Israel 2.23 100
Awassi Iran 1.16 207
Corriedale Kenya 1.36 70
Merino Egypt 0.85 126
Sardinian Italy 0.86 44
473