Dairy Sheep

Products: Milk, yoghurt and specialty cheeses

Synopsis – Australian Industry

In Australia, there are eight commercial dairy sheep farms, with an estimated flock size in 2006 of 4000 sheep. The main sheep are various crossbreeds.  South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia each have two commercial farms, and Victoria and Queensland have one each. Total production of sheep milk in Australia in 2006-07 was around 500,000 litres, with the Victorian farm (Meredith Dairy) accounting for around 40 per cent of the total. Unlike cows’ milk in Australia that is delivered to central processors, sheep milk is usually processed on farm. The estimated gross value at the farm gate of sheep milk products was around $4 million in 2006-07.  Around 60 per cent of Australian sheep milk production is used to make yoghurts, and the rest cheese.

Background

Milk from sheep is an important dairy product in many countries in the world. Apart from being consumed as milk, sheep milk is processed into yoghurts and specialty cheese.

Cheeses made exclusively from sheep milk include Roquefort, a blue cheese traditionally produced in France, feta cheese traditionally made from sheep milk in some regions of the world, and romano pecorino from Italy. Annual world production of sheep milk averaged 8.3 million tonnes in the three years to 2006, equivalent to around 1.3 per cent of annual world production of all milk types. The main producers of sheep milk are China (14 per cent of world production in the three years to 2006), Greece (9 per cent), Turkey (9 per cent), Italy (7 per cent), Syria (7 per cent), Iran (6 per cent), Romania (6 per cent), Somalia (6 per cent), Sudan (6 per cent) and Spain (5 per cent).

French exports of Roquefort cheese have been increasing steadily over the last ten years. The increased export supply has put downward pressure on export prices in constant dollars terms.

Australia imports small quantities of Roquefort cheese from France.  Import prices for Roquefort cheese have increased substantially in constant (2008) dollar terms since the mid 1990s. There are also substantial Australian imports of feta cheese that is also made from cow, goat and other milk types.

Links

• Australian Specialist Cheesemakers Association (www.australiancheese.org)
• Meredith Dairy (www.meredithdairy.com)