Managing for Profit

There are challenges in milking sheep

Steven Read and his wife milk about 200 head of sheep.  In 1994 both traded their jobs in town for a life of sheep dairying near Northfield, Minnesota.  They milk 200 head and every drop of that milk – about 600 pounds a head per 200 day lactation – is used to make cheese.  Read tells Brownfield the physical challenges of a sheep dairy are similar to conventional dairying, such as getting capital and getting good help, but they produce sheep milk cheese on their place, and that provides the special challenge of having to develop their artisan cheese marketing chops.

In the 20-plus years that they’ve making sheep milk cheese, artisan cheese making has proliferated.  They’ve not only ridden the wave of cheese popularity, Read says they’ve helped create the wave.  The result is the difficulty in meeting demand.  Steven Read says yes, such an operation is viable, but one has to be prepared to milk sheep, to manufacture cheese and to successfully market cheese.

AUDIO: Steven Read (3 min. MP3)