Milk Composition and Cheese Yield

When the Wisconsin dairy sheep industry got started in the mid 1990s, cheesemakers had to get accustomed to a whole new source of milk. All were familiar with cow milk and some were familiar with goat milk. However, sheep milk was much more concentrated with about twice as much fat and 40% more protein that cow or goat milk. They also found that sheep milk responded differently in the cheese make procedure. It was more sensitive to rennet, coagulated faster, produced a firmer curd and yielded more cheese per unit of milk than cow milk. Our objective of this report is to review factors impacting sheep milk composition and the resulting impact on cheese yields obtained from sheep milk.