Sheep kept for dairy production face distinct welfare challenges around lambing management, milking stress, and the fate of male lambs, with welfare standards varying significantly between extensive and intensive systems.
Dairy sheep welfare shares many features with dairy cow welfare — regular separation of young, continuous milking demands, and the redundancy of male offspring — but occurs at smaller scale and often in more extensive systems. The fate of male lambs is a welfare issue that rarely receives attention in artisan cheese narratives that emphasise traditional pastoral production. Welfare improvement in sheep dairy depends on access to outdoor grazing, social housing, effective mastitis prevention, and humane management of male offspring. Consumers of artisan sheep dairy products are often receptive to welfare information and may be willing to pay premiums that support higher welfare practices.