Dairy sheep provide milk for artisan cheeses worldwide but face welfare challenges including intensive milking management, early lamb separation, and inadequate attention to their social and behavioral needs.
Dairy sheep welfare encompasses challenges similar to those of dairy cattle but at a scale that receives considerably less welfare research and advocacy attention. The fundamental tension in dairy sheep farming is between milk yield goals and the welfare costs of achieving them: high-producing breeds are selected for traits that increase milk volume but may reduce robustness and increase health problems. Early maternal separation causes acute distress — ewes and lambs call for each other persistently — and where lambs are raised without maternal care, behavioral development is affected. Mastitis is a serious welfare issue that in sheep can progress rapidly and requires prompt treatment. Foot rot and footscald — conditions causing lameness — are more prevalent in intensive systems with poor drainage and hygiene. Pasture access and group social housing represent the welfare foundation; nutrition management, proactive health monitoring, and appropriate lambing management determine welfare quality within that foundation.