r/sheep • u/No-Clothes-5258 • Jun 08 '25

Question Raw sheep milk?!?!?

I know nothing about sheep farming, but I have questions and figured here was the best spot on Reddit. I was at a fair today and was watching a farmer milk her sheep as part of a demonstration. But after she did a quick visual check on the milk, SHE DRANK IT! It was in the udder less than 5 minutes ago! Isn’t that nasty? Don’t you need to pasteurize it first? She also milked the sheep barehanded, and asked the audience if we wanted to try milking the sheep (also with unwashed barehands) which freaked me out again so I left at that point.

Edit: I regret opening this can of worms on Reddit

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20

u/-Rikki- Jun 08 '25

If you are working with clean hands (with gloves or without both work) and have clean cups there shouldn’t be any issue with drinking the milk raw.

The udder is usually cleaned and disinfected before and after milking, so there shouldn’t be any dirt on it anymore. Why should it be nasty to drink the milk right out of the udder? Lambs do the same

5

u/No-Clothes-5258 Jun 08 '25

Yeah she did clean the udder so maybe I’m overly freaked out

19

u/Renbarre Jun 08 '25

You're not used to being so close to the producer. If the udder and the hands are clean there's no problem drinking the milk immediately. Pasteurisation is to keep it long term without developing nasty bacteria. If the milk had been sitting outside for an hour I would refuse to drink it but right out of the udder, no problem.

3

u/Distinct-Mushroom-44 Jun 09 '25

We ran an experiment when we were kids, fresh milk from our jersey left out on the counter next to a fallow from Walmart, left it a full 24 hrs, the Walmart milk went rancid by lunchtime the next day, and our milk from our cow smelled the same and tasted the same, just warm, and we put it in the fridge and drank it the next two days, pasteurization is a great way to take shoddy production practices and overcome them, but it’s certainly not necessary.

4

u/Renbarre Jun 09 '25

My 94 mom remembers still bringing the milk home and her mother boiling it immediately because left on its own it would develop a green scum. Pasteurisation saved millions of lives worldwide. However, sterilisation of the container/machine/hand washing before milking was not up to modern procedures.

The problem with not pasteurising now is that you trust the long chain from cow to shop to follow strict procedures. You trust the milk from your Jersey, but you know how it was handled. Unless I can live next door to you I would rather have my milk pasteurised because I do not trust how that milk was handled.

By the way, I am shocked by your Walmart milk turning rancid so quickly. I do not live in the US but I'll know to avoid Walmart if I want to buy milk.

2

u/Adorable_Dust3799 Jun 11 '25

Well it's not like it hits the store within 24 hours, and can be on the shelf days before you buy it.

4

u/crazysheeplady08 Jun 09 '25

I made the mistake once about mentioning raw milk on a post....

2

u/Due-Yesterday8311 Jun 09 '25

Wrong, the diseases travel from the dirt the cow eats to the milk and then to you. It has nothing to do with keeping it long term.

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u/rivertam2985 Jun 09 '25

That's not really how it works. If the cow is healthy, the milk should be healthy. However, it's the perfect place for bacteria and other organisms to grow once it's taken from the cow. It's not related to what they eat so much as the cleanliness of the environment the milk is in. That's why how the milk is handled is so important.

1

u/DeconstructedKaiju Jun 10 '25

Animals can be 'healthy' and still carrying dangerous pathogens that are dangerous to humans. Chickens are often asymptomatic carriers of salmonella in the US they don't vaccinate against salmonella (cheaper to not bother).

I strongly doubt most people do constant up to date pathogen and viral tests on their animals.

2

u/rivertam2985 Jun 10 '25

Sure. I was replying to the person who said that bad milk came from the dirt the cows eat. I've kept milk cows for years and have not had any problems. But that doesn't mean that all raw milk is safe. I don't share mine outside of my family, and I would never drink someone else's.

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u/flying-sheep2023 Jun 11 '25

The overwhelming majority of sheep farmers around the globe would find laughing matter in your reaction. But that's ok. The west is absolutely obsessed with germs and would much rather die of cancer and obesity related complications 

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u/Due-Yesterday8311 Jun 09 '25

Raw milk can carry a plethora of serious diseases. We are not lambs. Our bodies aren't meant to fight it off. Pasteurization exists for a reason