“We produce a seasonal dairy product, which is really something for a lot of customers to wrap their heads around. You can only get sheep milk at certain times of the year, just like strawberries or pumpkins,” said Carrie Wasser of Willow Pond Sheep Farm.
From May to October, Carrie and her husband Brent milk 40 ewes – a mixed flock of East Friesians and Lacaunes. The 65-acre farm is located in Gardiner, NY, (halfway between Albany and New York City), and it’s the only sheep dairy in the Hudson Valley.
Agriculture was on the periphery of Carrie and Brent’s former careers – Carrie as an ag journalist and Brent as a cheesemaker and educator. It wasn’t until they were in their late 30s and early 40s that the couple decided to launch their farm on Carrie’s parents’ land.
In 2018, they purchased some feeder lambs and began marketing cut and wrapped lamb at the end of that year. Meanwhile, they constructed a barn which includes their milking parlor, milk processing facility and farm store. By 2020, just as the pandemic struck, they welcomed their first milking ewes to the new barn and parlor.
Lambing starts in mid-March with nearly all ewes giving birth to twins. Eighty lambs are born within three to four weeks, and at least one person checks on the flock every three to four hours. During this time, they host popular paid weekend tours where people can hold the newborn lambs.
Most of the lambs are raised for meat, though each year they retain a handful of females to replace ewes that are culled and processed as mutton. (Carrie and Brent believe it’s time for the word “mutton” to be replaced because of its negative connotations from returning World War II GIs who were fed a steady ration of canned Australian mutton.)
The lambs nurse on their mother for at least 30 days and until they weigh 30 lbs. They are supplemented with either a certified organic or non-GMO grain offered in the lamb creep and continue receiving grain after transitioning to pasture with a target slaughter weight of 100 lbs.
Once the lambs are separated from the ewes in late April, the ewes begin to be milked twice a day, which continues through approximately mid-October. Carrie is the primary milker, though they try to always employ a part-time afternoon milker.
Twelve ewes at a time enter the milking parlor from the barn via a short ramp with a manually operated cutoff gate. Their heads are secured in a head gate and they eat their grain ration during milking. On average, each ewe produces about one-half to three-quarters gallons of milk per day.
Twelve ewes at a time enter the milking parlor from the barn via a short ramp with a manually operated cutoff gate. They eat their grain ration during milking. Photo courtesy of Brent and Carrie Wasser
Willow Pond has 35 acres in pasture. During grazing season, the ewes are released from the parlor and make their way to a new paddock created with portable electric netting. The lambs are also moved twice a day in a separate rotation. Two Maremma livestock dogs keep a constant watch on the grazing animals.
“They’re not attack dogs. They’re bred to stay with the flock and because they’re big and white the predator usually thinks it’s a really big sheep and that they can’t take that flock on,” said Carrie. Brent added, “They’re pretty menacing with their bark too.”
Once the milk starts flowing into their two 30-gallon bulk tanks, an intense production schedule starts in the creamery managed primarily by Brent. He processes milk every 48 to 72 hours beginning at 4:30 a.m., leaving the creamery at 2 p.m. as the yogurt incubates in 7.8- and 15.5-ounce glass jars.
The majority of their sales come from their creamy rich yogurt. Sheep milk is high in protein with almost twice the cream content of cow milk. The couple also pasteurizes and sells a limited amount of fluid milk at the farm stand. Brent is hoping to eventually produce a premium sheep milk frozen delicacy, and this season he experimented with sheep milk ricotta.
Their production schedule is matched by the equally time-consuming task of direct marketing. They attend three farmers markets, have a self-serve farm store open on the weekends and manage weekly pickups from two distributors. Working with the distributors gets their products into more populated areas like Albany, New York City and Westchester County.
Samples are used to draw in customers at farmers markets. Once they taste the yogurt, shoppers are usually hooked. “The main thing that drives our marketing is having a really delicious, fantastic product. That’s what people respond to more than anything else,” Brent said.
Milk and yogurt in spring and summer and pasture-raised lamb in autumn and winter account for the majority of their gross sales but another goal at Willow Pond is to pay respect to their animals by using the entire sheep. Wool from the yearly shearing is transformed into handwoven blankets (about 12 to 15 per year), and they also sell sheep skins tanned at Vermont Natural Tannery. Carrie and Brent also envision using the excess fat from the lamb and ewe carcasses to develop candles or soap.
The whirlwind milking and processing season winds down in mid-October, marking a time of transition for both the farmers and the ewes. The milking flock is dried off, the lambs are processed for meat and the dairy rams are introduced to the ewes for breeding. By Thanksgiving the ewes transition to the barn where they live for winter.
The winter ewe chores are fairly streamlined, allowing Carrie and Brent time to reflect on the previous season and plan for the next. Beyond stewarding the land, providing a quality product and sharing Willow Pond with their community, there’s also a less tangible benefit that compels them to continue despite the challenges of producing, processing and marketing milk.
Brent said, “There’s a tradition of thousands of years. There’s a development that has been going on. It’s a partnership and just as the human being has imprinted upon the animal so has the animal imprinted upon the human being. I do sometimes have the thought when I am out with the lambs or walking in the ewes that we are custodians of that tradition. We’re keeping that going.”
by Sonja Heyck-Merlin
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