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This is the only sheep dairy cooperative in the United States. It was founded in 1998 with the goal to establish a stable market for and supply of the highest quality sheep milk available. A cooperative also enabled the growing number of family sheep dairies to collectively market their sheep milk and to obtain better pricing on sheep dairying equipment. There are approximately 15 member farms that vary greatly in size from small family dairies, up to 100+ acre farms milking hundreds of ewes. 2001 was the first year the coop shipped fluid milk to cheese processors and today, shipments of fluid and frozen sheep milk go as far east as New York and all the way west to California. In 2003, the WSDC moved forward with producing a value added product with the help of master cheesemaker Bob Wills at Cedar Grove Cheese. Milk is shipped a couple hundred miles from the coop to Cedar Grove, where it is transformed in small batches into ten-pound wheels. Both cheeses are covered in a breathable, edible poly coating material for a six-month aging period.
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