The US has a huge appetite for sheep's milk cheese—it's the number one importer globally—but only around 1 percent of the sheep cheese we consume here comes from American creameries. There are a variety of reasons sheep's milk hasn't taken off in the US the way goat's milk products have in recent decades, but a ban against importing high-quality dairy sheep genetics from Europe is a big one. Now that the ban has been lifted, sheep dairies are working to catch up. Stef and Sue interview Portuguese-born animal scientist, breeding advisor, and cheese specialist Mariana Marques de Almeida, who's leading the way on this exciting effort. 

Mariana is working to seriously level up sheep dairying in the US with Ms. J and Co., a large Wisconsin sheep dairy and breeding project she opened in 2015. She and her business partners hope that by making high-quality genetics from her Spanish Assaf sheep available to farmers and selling great milk to existing sheep dairies, making sheep's milk cheese will become much more common here in the US than it has been. 

Links: 

More on Mariana and Ms. J and Co.: https://www.msjandco.com/

More on Sue & Birchrun Hills Farm: https://birchrunhillsfarm.com/

More on Stef & Valley Milkhouse: https://www.valleymilkhouse.com/

More on Alex: https://www.alexandrajones.net/