Dairy sheep farms set to boost stock numbers
Stock expansion and management tweaks are on the cards for a couple of Waikato dairy sheep farmers coming to the end of their milking season.
New Zealand could lead the world in sheep milk production, says Nuffield scholar Lucy Griffiths. She told the recent Ewe Milk Products and Sheep Dairying Conference at Massey University the industry is well set up to lead internationally.
Griffiths recently completed her Nuffield scholarship project on the sheep milk industry, travelling three months in the UK, France, Israel, Italy, Switzerland and the USA to compile her report.
She chose this industry because of its potential to help double New Zealand’s exports and because of her marketing work with a sheepmilk cheese maker in Wairarapa.
“We have one of the biggest sheep dairies in the world here – Blue River, with 20,000 ewes. We are leaders in bovine dairy, we are the leaders in sheep farming so why can’t we be the leaders in dairy sheep?’ she told Rural News.
“However, we are competing with traditional sheep milk countries like Spain, Italy and France, producers of sheep milk and cheese for centuries. For example, Roquefort in France, with 1700 suppliers, has produced cheese since 79CE. Today they produce some of the most expensive cheeses in the world.
“So we have competitors in cheese, but there is a lot of opportunity for us in the gourmet food market (butter, yoghurt, milk, fresh milk and ice-cream) and in functional foods, sports nutrition, UHT and infant formula.”
Griffiths notes that worldwide at least 10 million tonnes of sheep milk are produced annually, the largest producers being China and Turkey. And though New Zealand could not reach such volumes it has the capacity to produce for high-value, niche markets.
New Zealand’s many advantages include its world leadership in sheep farming, breeding, technology and research, Griffiths says. Our farmers are good adopters and developers of milking technology and some of the main sheep milking breeds, e.g. East Friesian and Awassi, are here.
She concedes the challenges in developing a large sheep milk industry in New Zealand: the lack of a strong tradition of sheep milk consumption, limited flocks of milking sheep breeds, and few people with experience to run sheep milk operations.
“But sheep dairy has the potential to be a billion dollar industry in 10 years if the right breeding programmes, feed mixes and other technologies are implemented. Demand for sheep milk products is growing worldwide driven by health, tradition and fashion.”
Te Awamutu dairy farmers Doug, Penny, Josh and Bayley Storey have planted more than 25,000 native trees on the family farm, adding to a generations-old native forest.
OPINION: The Government's recent announcement that methane targets will be reviewed is bringing relief to farmers.
The merger of two of the country’s largest animal nutrition companies won’t lessen competition, the Commerce Commission has ruled.
Zespri has unveiled the award-winning KiwiBrothersTM mascots in China for the first time to market its large kiwifruit crop.
Japanese consumers pay a premium for food that contains ingredients that support health.
In a few weeks the winner of the prestigious Ahuwhenua Trophy for the top Māori dairy farm will be revealed at a gala dinner in Hamilton. In the past couple of weeks, the two finalists in this year’s competition have been holding on-farm field days to showcase why they are finalists. Peter Burke has attended both field days.