Small Ruminant Dairying | A Reference for Sheep and Goat Dairies

The objective of this website is to consolidate information helpful to both new and experienced small ruminant dairy and creamery operators.

Experienced farmers and processors may want to jump directly to relevant topics in our menu. If you notice we are lacking in an important topic, please contact us and we can try to fill in this gap.

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Getting started

Goat and sheep enthusiasts trying to decide whether to make the jump into starting their own dairy or creamery may find the following introductory articles helpful before moving on to our section on Regulations.

Sheep

Principles of sheep dairying in North America. The definitive guide.
“Introduction To Dairy Sheep Farming” ² (PDF) by Bee Tolman. The economics listed in these 2002 articles is outdated but still has some good examples of figures you need to estimate.
“Start-up and Operating Costs of Small Farmstead Cheese Operations for Dairy Sheep” ² (PDF) by Carol Delaney and Dennis Kauppila. This article was presented at the 2002 Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium at Cornell Univ. and breaks out income and expenses for 4 Vermont sheep dairies. Factors affecting profitability are discussed as well as costs of setting up 3 cheese rooms.
“Guide to Raising Dairy Sheep” (PDF) by Yves Berger, Claire Mikolayunas, David Thomas– UW Extension With only 6 pages, this is far less in depth than the above book but still a very good introduction to the world of dairy sheep.
DSANA symposia. These 22 proceedings contain valuable information about dairy sheep farming and processing sheep milk.

Goats

“So You Want to Start a Goat Dairy” (PDF) by Dot Hempler – This article was first presented at the 2002 Caprine Outing. It is an older article and many of the contacts are undoubtedly outdated but it’s a good example of the information you need to collect when exploring the possibility of starting a dairy.
“A Guide to Starting a Commercial Goat Dairy” (PDF) by Carol Delaney. This can also be downloaded directly from Carol’s site at www.caroldelaneyconsulting.com . The title tells it all. Very thorough coverage in this 168 page book.

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Getting started

Sheep

Goats

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