🐐 Small ruminants

Small ruminants are goats and sheep — small cud-chewing animals that were among the first to be domesticated in South-West Asia, even before cattle. Together they provide only about 3–4% of the world’s milk, according to the FAO, but in many dry and mountainous areas they are the main source of milk and meat for rural families.

Goats are undemanding: according to the FAO, some breeds, such as the Bedouin goat, survive on poor forage and little water. The largest goat milk producers are India, Bangladesh and Sudan, and in the Mediterranean goat cheeses and yogurts are a notable part of the economy. Sheep’s milk, by contrast, is about 61% produced in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and almost all of it goes into cheese.

Goat’s and sheep’s milk are similar to cow’s milk in composition, but sheep’s milk has much more protein and fat. It is used for many famous cheeses — Roquefort, Pecorino, Manchego, feta, bryndza, and the goat cheeses of France and Spain. The animals’ small size makes them well suited to family farms where keeping a cow is difficult.