Most of the world’s sheep milk is processed into cheese. Roquefort, the blue cheese of south central France, is one of the better known
of the sheep milk cheeses. The U.S. annually imports more than 60 million pounds of cheese made
from sheep milk.
The fat-tailed Awassi is naturally hardy and a good forager. Most ewes are polled although the rams are horned. The fleeces are used for carpet-making and have a varying degree of hair. Because of natural and selective breeding, the Awassi was the highest producing breed in the Middle East, producing 650 pounds per 210-day lactation.