Meat and milk

In short

• A ewe gives roughly 25 kg of meat a year (lambs and cull ewes), up to 120 L of milk for milking, 1.5–5 kg of wool and half a tonne of manure.
• A lamb for the spit weighs roughly 20–25 kg live; the carcass is roughly half the live weight.
• Ewes are milked after the lambs are weaned (30–60 days), for roughly 3–5 months.
• 1 kg of fresh cheese takes roughly 4–5 L of ewe's milk.
• Raw milk can carry brucellosis, listeria, E. coli O157 and campylobacter: boil or pasteurise it, except for cheese made by a proven method.
• Slaughter for sale only at a licensed abattoir; for your own household only as the rules allow, and always after the withdrawal period.

What's inside

Chapters

1. What the flock gives in a year
2. Lambs for meat
3. Slaughter and regulations
4. Lamb and mutton in the kitchen
5. Milking ewes
6. Safe milk and cheese
7. Cheese and other ewe's milk products
8. Skins, tallow, wool and manure
9. Selling and value
10. Which ewes stay, which leave
11. Common mistakes
12. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Meat plan
• Milk and cheese plan
• Milking log
• Production record
• Yearly costs and value of the flock
• Produce calendar