Comparison of cheeses made from cow and sheep milk
About Turkish cheeses
The price per liter of sheep and goat milk is higher than cow milk’s. We can consider some reasons for that. Sheep and goat give milk only in spring and summer months. The daily milk ratio of them is highly lower than a cow’s. It is a merit requiring effort. It is harder to care them. For sheep and goat to produce milk, they should be made grass and stroll in pasturelands freely. Small cattle feed under organic conditions during grassing and since they feed with a great variety of grasses and plants, the quality and density of milk is higher than cow milk’s. Higher priced milk means higher unit prices for sheep or goat cheese. Care, expenses and labor of small cattle are more than those of cows.
Facilities make it easy to find and process cow milk. For these reasons, cow milk harmonizes better with fabricated dairy products in production of cheese.
So it means that cheeses made from cow milk and any kind of dairy products containing cow milk reach consumers more easily and cheaper than the products made from small cattle milk.
About Turkish cheeses
Real sheep cheese
Sheep milk is generally more suitable for making cheese. 30 years
ago, it was possible to make real full-fat cheese, for example 18 kg
cheese from 60 kg pure sheep milk in average by using only pure milk,
natural yeast and salt in company with conventional methods. It is also
possible to achieve the same quality even today. Environmental factors
decrease the quality of milk. In order to produce the same quality
cheese, it should contain more milk. Unfortunately, the number of
companies making this quality cheese is very few. Since sheep and goat
farming was more widespread in our country, it was easier to collect and
process milk.
However, today it is harder to find and process sheep and goat milk.
Due to the difficulty, the price of sheep cheese is higher.
When examining the ingredients of most branded cheeses sold as
sheep or goat cheese, the fact that the ratio of sheep or goat milk does
not exceed five percent and the remaining part is from cow milk proves
how sheep and goat milk is expensive, hard to find and valuable. Low
cost of this kind of cheeses allows the price to move irrationally. What
is to be remembered is that a product with high cost can never be sold
cheaply. 
It should also be mentioned that, Thrace is the region where the quality of milk is highest in Turkey. It is gratifying that financial incentives are started to be given in our country for sheep and goat farming and dairy products producers particularly covering Thrace and projects are developed and made widespread in this context.
Real cow cheese
When examining the cheese sales, it is a fact that cow cheese is consumed more than sheep cheese. Cow cheese is a product, brand diversity and tendency for competition of which is high in the market. That’s why the producer chooses to gain from demand in order to make profit from the product it sells.
However, due to the basic concepts such as product diversity, consumer unconsciousness, etc. many brands abuse cow cheese and products made from cow milk during production. For example, in order to make a box of high quality full fat cow cheese (changes depending on season), 120-150 kg milk should be used. Costs increase for cow cheese producers producing fabricated cow cheese under these circumstances. Considering milk prices and expenses, the earning of producer is very low in a box of cheese weighing 18 kg in average.
During production; considering the fees paid for materials used in basic ingredients, income-expenses, taxes paid to government, equipment expenses, cold storage room fees, marketing expenses and likewise per liter of milk and for labor, it is not easy at all to make and sell cheese. The cheese producers which are aware of this and are led by big national brands do many things to decrease the costs. Decreasing milk ratio and adding chemical foreign substances are the most important. If the purpose is only to make a profit, instead of producing cheese for the producer, additives, milk powder, coloring agents, etc. are included in the cheese. You can have a look at the “ingredients” section of the cheese you buy. Everything is clear. It has been found that the whole of these substances threaten human health in the long term.
