Dairy Sheep Breeds

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  • Current trends of the Spanish Assaf Sheep / Genetic Improvement Program - 2018 - Overview of the genetic improvement of dairy traits in the Assaf breed over the last 25 years.  An intensive selection and breeding program employed by the Spanish Assaf Association has resulted in major improvements in the breed’s milk yield, lactation length, and udder conformation.  The breed improvement program has also included selection for milk composition and somatic cell count.

  • Performance of Katahdin-Lacaune crossbred ewes - 2012 - Yves Berger & David Thomas, University of Wisconsin, Spooner Research Station. A small research study looking at the feasibility of a hair (Katahdin) dairy (Lacaune) ewe; which combination worked best with the ultimate goal to create a shedding dairy ewe.

  • Farm Tour 2012 #1: Everona Dairy - 2012 - Pat Elliott, Virginia. A look at their high percentage East Friesian flock, year round milking of 200+ ewes, bottle raising lambs, making and selling cheese.

  • Situation of Sheep Milk Production in Europe, 2011, Beate Maassen-Francke. An overview of the sheep breeds, milk production, and production methods used in Europe.

  • EUROPEAN CHEESEMAKING PERSPECTIVES - 2010 - Ivan Larcher, Larcher Consulting Overview of European sheep breeds and history of cheesemaking

  • Fifteen Years of Dairy Sheep Research at the Spooner Agricultural Research Station, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2011, David L. Thomas and Yves M. Berger. A  history of the breeds, breeding program, weaning and milking systems, and lactation performance of grazing ewes and protein supplementation.

  • THE ISRAELI DAIRY SHEEP INDUSTRY -2008 - Gabriel Leitner National Mastitis Laboratory, Kimron Veterinary Institute. History of the Israeli dairy sheep industry

  • DAIRY SHEEP PRODUCTION AND CHEESE MAKING IN THE FRENCH PYRENEES - 2006 - G. Lagriffoul , J.M. Arranz 2, JM Astruc 1 E. Morin 1 Institut de l’Elevage - Comité National Brebis Laitières. An overview of dairy sheep production and cheese making in western Pyrenees.

  • Comparison of East Friesian-crossbred and Lacaune-crossbred ewe lambs for dairy sheep production - first-year results from a multi-year trial - 2000 - Thomas. Due to concerns that East Friesian lambs have inferior health and survival performance compared to other breeds, researchers compared various measures for F1 (cross) East Friesian and Lacaune ewe lambs to the end of their first lactation. In this interim report, the breeds performed similarly for lamb production and udder morphology. East Friesian lambs had longer lactation lengths, higher milk yields, more milk fat and protein, but those differences were not statistically signficant. High-percentage East Friesian ewe lambs mated to East Friesian rams gave birth to more lambs, but the lambs had a higher mortality than lambs from the F1 East Friesian or F1 Lacaune ewes. Levels of East Friesian breeding greater than 50% may result in higher lamb mortality.