Sheep’s milk a whole new culture

A collection of New Zealand scientists are promoting sheep’s milk.

Sheep cheese, yoghurt and icecream are already available in stores, produced by 16 farms and some 30,000 ewes from Invercargill to Kerikeri.

But Kiwis are averse to the creamy milk, and the majority of the country’s production goes to export.

Scientists from Agresearch and Massey University are promoting sheep’s milk at Fieldays 2017, encouraging passers-by to try flavoured milk, cheese and yoghurt.

Agresearch senior scientist Linda Samuelsson said that, compared with cow’s milk, it had more protein, minerals and fat.

‘‘Why not sheep’s milk?,’’ she said while handing out punnets of chocolate, banana and vanilla flavoured milk.

It’s the dry season for sheep, so the milk is made from powder and somewhat thin. From the teat, it’s said to be akin to 50/50 cream.

Sheep’s milk cheddar is sharp but largely similar to that dairy cow kind. The feta is not for the faint hearted; almost overwhelming taste.

The yoghurt is sour and apparently helps with constipation.

Agresearch, Callaghan Innovation and Massey and Otago universities are four years into a six-year, $6.5 million research project on how to get more milk from a sheep.

‘‘So far, we’ve seen that sheep’s milk is digested differently from other kinds of milks,’’ Samuelsson said.

It may be preferable for some people who struggle to keep down cow’s milk, though sheep’s milk has the same amount of lactose.

It is high in calcium and phosphorus, so potentially good for bone health.

And they are collecting data on the environmental impact, which is said to be less that of cow dairy farming – all with the expressed purpose of getting more New Zealanders farming, and consuming, more sheep’s milk.

‘‘The milk is a conversation starter. We want to get people to try it, because a lot of New Zealanders think it tastes bad,’’ Samuelsson said.

Sheep milk producer Peter Gatley, general manager of Maui Milk, said export would remain the predominant market for the milk because Kiwi culture was too hard to change.

There’s plenty of advantages to farming sheep: they can be milked from 1-year-old and breed faster than cattle.

He farms 3000 ewes on the western shore of Lake Taupo, and is starting a new farm of 2000 sheep.

The great challenge was catching up with overseas producers like Europe, where sheep had been milked for 2000 years, he said.

Sheep in New Zealand produce 120 to 150 litres of milk a season; French sheep 400l a season.

He’s recently brought in a new breed that should enhance production.