Dairy
Dorset Horn
C tier
Dorset Horn sheep are an English breed better known for out-of-season lambing than elite dairy records, yet ewes can be milked for modest household or farmstead volumes. Milk is typically mid-rich with a gentle pastoral flavour reflecting chalk-down and mixed grass diets. It lacks the industrial yield of East Friesian but suits small cheese experiments. Historical farm dairies sometimes drew Dorset milk for butter and simple cheeses when cow milk was short. Today pure Dorset Horn dairy streams are rare; any milk is usually a by-product of pedigree or meat flocks. Crosses with dairy rams improve volume for shepherds wanting both lambs and a parlour.
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Characteristics
Preparations
Traits
Grading systems
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History
Horned Dorset sheep were established in south-west England for prolific lambing.
Breed society standards fixed Dorset Horn type primarily for meat and maternal traits.
Occasional farm milking continued on mixed Dorset flocks.
Rare-breed keepers noted Dorset Horn milk for small farmstead use.