Sheep milk and its products are regaining popularity with approximately 15,000 sheep currently being milked in the UK. Extreme dairy type ewes such as the Friesland are expensive compared to commercial genotypes and the crossing of dairy type sires with commercial ewes to produce cross-bred daughters for milking offers an alternative route of entry into milking sheep. An investigation was carried out on a commercial unit in Aberdeenshire milking around 150 ewes to assess the relative suitability and performance of pure-bred and cross-bred dairy ewes under commercial conditions.

The study involved first lactation ewes, 5 Friesland x Scotch Halfbreds being compared with 5 pure-bred Frieslands. The ewes lambed at 15 months of age between 20 and 27 May and the ewes were grazed on ryegrass/white clover swards. Ewes nursed their lambs for four weeks after lambing and machine milking started on day 29 of lactation. Milk yield was recorded weekly while milk fat and protein were measured at two weekly intervals.