Milking My Icelandic Sheep

Icelandic sheep are truly a triple purpose breed, supplying meat, fiber, and milk for the shepherd willing to take advantage of their many gifts. Now, I am not one to tout the attributes of my animals with out firsthand experience, even though I am aware of more than one Icelandic sheep dairy operation, and I have personally tasted delicious cheese made by one such fine establishment.  I felt it was important to try some milking of my own flock, not only to aquire yet another product to help pay for their hay, but to be able to say for sure that it was something that any small flock owner could try for themselves and be successful.

So, this spring I gave it a shot, with the end goal being some sheep's milk soap. My amazingly talented husband whipped up a milking stand with some plans from the internet, and I purchased a nifty little device called the Udderly EZ Milker, and we were off!

I selected seven ewes for milking, some older girls and a couple of yearlings who were first time moms. I started when the lambs were about 4 weeks old, but I have heard that you can start when they are as young as 2 weeks. I separated the moms and lambs in the evening, about 7 or 8 pm. All of our pens are made from welded wire cattle panels, so moms and babies could see, hear and smell each other, just not nurse.

I went down in the morning to milk between 6 and 7 am. The first big hurdle was getting the girls to hop onto the milking stand. Our ewes are fed grain only in late pregnancy, and it would be a gross understatement to say that they like it a lot. If I am among them carrying a bucket that may have the slightest possibility of holding grain, (and don't all buckets have that potential?) they will charge, and trample me into a bloodied, quivering mess, without a second thought. That actually has never happened because I will throw the bucket far away from my body and head for the hills. They really do love me, but they love grain more. Anyway, sheep are kind of like people when it comes to being wary of trying new things. My yearling ewes would jump through flaming hoops of fire to get a mouthful of grain, so they were in the milking stand head gate in less than a minute's time.

The older girls were not so easily lead astray. They always know immediately when I am up to something that involves their ultimate submission or entrapment. I spent quite a bit longer coaxing , with encouraging words and frequent mouthfuls of grain to get them up and locked in. A couple of them just refused to take the bait. I did not feel like wrestling with them for this purpose, so I let them go and decided to work with five instead of seven. 

Once they were up on the stand scarfing down the food, it was basically a race to get as much milk out of them as I could before the grain was gone. When they run out, they want to get out of the head gate, and start kicking and dancing, and that brings a new set of problems as I try not to spill the milk I just worked so hard to get. I had set up the stand so that a panel was on one side and I was sitting on the other, preventing the girls from falling off if they moved around too much. I also put a rubber doormat type rug on the wooden stand, so it was non slip.

The ewes do not immediately let down their milk. If you have watched the lambs nurse, you know that they dive under the udder and vigorously head butt mom a few times before latching on for a drink.  I took a more gentle approach, and did some quick massage to the udder to help the milk flow. The milking device worked pretty well and I was happy to have it. I would try milking from both the side and the back, whatever seemed to work best in the moment. I would milk as much as possible, and quite a bit got spilled in the beginning while we were all getting used to the routine.I really cannot say how much milk they would produce if you were serious about the whole thing and had a milking machine and a good set up, like a real sheep dairy. (sheep dairy: www.dancinglambfarm.com) For my purposes, it was more about the process as a whole. Getting enough milk to produce a few batches of soap this first time was the end goal, but I just really wanted to see if my ewes and I could work together in this way, without too much trouble.

Lessons learned: The sheep figure out the routine after about a week of working it. Do not expect any real cooperation before then, if they do, you are lucky. Even the stubborn, obnoxious kickers will calm down and behave for the most part, after some time goes by. Patience is the rule, nothing good happens when you run out of it.  Bigger teats are a bonus! If you plan to make milking a part of your business, you can breed for that trait.

I have about 10 bags of frozen milk, with 3 cups per bag, which is the amount that my soap recipe uses.

I did not pursue milking for a long time, but will probably go longer next year, if the soap is a success. I can now tell you with confidence that any small flock owner can easily milk their Icelandic sheep. Maybe next year I'll try some cheese!