goat milk vs. sheep milk for cheese?

Hello there!
I'm wondering which milk is better for making your own cheese, goats' or that of sheep?
I'm aware that it depends on the particular breed of goat/sheep as well...
Perhaps my question should be; is there a breed of sheep that is a good all-rounder for milk AND wool?

Thank you in advance!
Nina

Hello Nina!


I think "what is better"  depends on what you want.


The flavor will be different.

What do you like to get when you go to the fine cheese store?

The sheep has a higher fat content.
The goat will give more milk.



I raise Finnsheep.  They give me rich milk and soft warm wool.  

Some individual sheep are better to milk than others.
Look for large teats ( the nipple part on the udder)   The larger the teat is the more milk you get per squirt.  
Having tame, easy going sheep makes milking easier too.

I raise Nigora goats, for milk (about 9% butterfat) and their mohair/cash-gora fiber. I love my sweet little goats - they range from 19" - 29" tall, at the withers, and up to 60 or 70lbs, for a full grown buck.  Their temperament is very friendly and affectionate, and being so small, they're generally easier to contain (except for my one buck, who I'm pretty sure is half Houdini) and manage, even for kids.  

The milk is sweet, creamy, and should be amazing for cheese, since we already love it for yogurt. I also make lovely silky, moisturizing soaps with it, and will be baking & (hopefully) making ice cream with it, this year.


With 7 goats & 2 sheep, off pasture, I've averaged just 2 1/2 (60lb avg weight) bales of hay per week. I've only bought 2 50lb bags of loose, free-fed minerals, in 4yrs, I don't feed grains, and rarely give treats. The goats are great brush-hogs, but the sheep only eat grass and hay. When they're all out to pasture, my feed costs go down so low as to be completely offset by the gas we save, from them doing the vast majority of our brush control and mowing.

Thank you Samantha and Carla for your very insightful replies!
Happy to hear there are options for a win-win (milk for cheese AND wool/hair to spin), I'll think it all over and see what the future holds!

I raise dairy goats and love it. There are some people where I live that raise milking sheep and they love that.

Sheeps milk will give more cheese for the amount of milk used, as their milk has higher amounts of protein and fat and lower amounts of water, but goats generally give more milk than sheep, so it may not be as much of an issue.

Sheeps milk has a higher ratio of fat to protein, producing beautiful soft cheeses, but goats milk produces lovely cheeses too.

Something to ask around about for dual purpose animals is how long they will milk for - if you want milk and cheese from an animal for 10 months of the year (or more), it's worth asking questions, as some animals will have shorter lactation cycles if they are putting more energy into producing fleece.

Considering what your land will offer them is also important - if you have pasture and need to keep your animals fenced in, sheep will be probably the better choice, but if you have scrubland or forest, goats would be the better choice (although they are much harder to fence).

Hello Kate,

Thank you for your thoughtful reply!

I'm looking for a dual purpose goat or sheep that would give milk and fleece "as long as possible".
Availability of some breeds (here in France) is a limiting issue as well.

My land is an old orchard, with living hedges all around. The ground is covered in a mixture of grasses, flowers and herbs.
We currently have chicken and two kunekune pigs. The pigs are fenced in with an electric fence. They do all the digging for the veggie garden spot, diminishing English ivy and such, next to being just adorable, asking for belly rubs.

The goat/sheep is for the future, at the moment we're still renovating and establishing garden(s), planting new trees to invigorate the orchard.
But making cheese and spinning and knitting wool is something I've envisioned for a decade already, gathering information (slowly) as I go.

Thanks again for chiming in!

Hello Nina!


Your place sounds beautiful!  My sheep would love it!

You might be able to find someone locally who is raising sheep or goats for milk and or fiber.  You could help with fencing or farm chores and trade for milk or wool to spin.

You would get experience with different animals and you can get started playing with making cheese and spinning even before you have your own animals.   .  

I have found a very valuable trade I can give is being a farm sitter.
People with farm animals often need a reliable farm sitter.   If I am going to travel,  I feel so much better having someone who knows my animals, looking in on them.  

Another great trade is to offer some pasture to someone with animals you like.  Then you get all the joys of having animals without all the costs and responsibility.  

Hello Samantha,

Thank you for your message, and sorry to be a bit late with my reply, Life got in the way a bit.

I'm getting to the conclusion that sheep would be the way to go here. This thread has been very helpful for forming my future plans further.

The sheep project is something I'm projecting into the future, since at the moment the renovation of an ancient French farmhouse to a Nest/Home is taking a lot of time and energy, next to the spring things in and around the garden.
Thank you for your helpful tips, I'll carry them on into the future!

All the best,
Nina

Samantha Lewis wrote:
You might be able to find someone locally who is raising sheep or goats for milk and or fiber.  You could help with fencing or farm chores and trade for milk or wool to spin.

You would get experience with different animals and you can get started playing with making cheese and spinning even before you have your own animals.   .  

I have found a very valuable trade I can give is being a farm sitter.
People with farm animals often need a reliable farm sitter.   If I am going to travel,  I feel so much better having someone who knows my animals, looking in on them.  

WWOOF, Willing Workers on Organic Farms, may be a source of volunteers, or an outlet for your skills, depending on your situation. USA branch: https://wwoofusa.org/en/, branches worldwide

Over here in the UK, farmers have issues disposing of sheep fleeces, often incurring more cost shearing than they get from selling. Certain varieties have premium fleeces, with good markets. Others are self-shedding, like the original wild. So if you're choosing your flock for wool and milk, I'd say make sure you've got a market for your fleece!
I've just heard talk of pyrolysing the unwanted wool for a spray-on plant health product.

Just comments-
Goat supplement often has copper, and copper kills sheep.  Sheep cannot feed on the goat supplement

Goats eat bark.  Anything you want to save esp. trees, fence.

Goats are escape artists.  If you go with electric fencing, use 7 joules.  They will test to see if it's on.

If you plan to have baby trees, Saplings, you do NOT want goats. I have both- goats and raise trees, but I'm literally insane. Goats have a superpower- fence teleportation. Until you decide to absorb the cost and install 4' wood picket fences, your goats will be Ozzy and "see you on the other side". But are they worth it? I would have to say no, but I still have mine for those few rare aaawww moments and because I'm an evil person and deserve to be punished.

If you pick more primitive sheep breeds (shetland, soay) you'll get some goat traits in your sheep. And yes shetland is the 3 purpose breed for milk, wool and meat back on shetland, along with the trait of a rooing coat i.e. it can be plucked when ready, so you don't need to shear (and get someone to want to help you) and supposedly that makes the wool easier to handle if done by hand. Other option for a rooing/shedding coat is breeding to soay to bring the trait into your flock. If you just want some wool to play with, ask around, because wool is pretty much waste farmers need to pay to get rid of. Likely you can get some for free if you ask and come to pick it up.

On milking and teat lenght, length makes milking easier because you have something to hold, but ease of milking is in the tissue and how wide/thick the teat canal is. I had twin sisters where one had like needle width teat canal and the other normal, for the same size teat that meant about 1 squirt from the second was 2-3 from the first volume wise. And teat size tends to increase with age and more lambings/kiddings. So small teats on a first freshner is normal.
Now if you want to have animals for milk even if you don't want to milk them now, if they have lambs/kids check the udders daily and certainly with singles milk them some, so the udder produces well in both halves. That start up tends to "set" at first freshen, so stay on top of production from the get go esp. the first month of production.

Consider your predators.  I was going to have a carport with heavy pallet walls.  Then, I realized we have cougars that do come down from the mountains. One time, 3 houses away.  If a hunter wants to take a cougar, he told me he puts out a baby goat that is yelling for it's mom.  The cougar will come.  I did not use a noisy breed like a Nubian.  The barn had concrete chunks buried under the walls, placed before we built. Nothing could dig in.  Likewise, the venting had rebar pieces.  The windows were at 8 feet which is reachable for a cougar jumping but it couldn't get in because of the rebar behind the screen.

I picked a goat that is quiet except for when in heat- Toggenburg goats.   Even tho a cougar was 3 doors down, nothing led the cougar to the goats.  Also, consider the noise level of the breed especially if you have troublesome neighbor.  We did 5 foot cyclone fencing for everyday at the barn, which the goats were never able to get out of, and only when we were there did they go into the field while we cut firewood, or downed limbs, and could watch.

Hi. I do not have any experience with goats or sheep (except for using their wools), but I follow this guy who does know more on both kinds of animals, their milk, making cheese and using wool for felt:
123Homefree
Only it's sometimes difficult to find the needed information on his channel ...