Our farming style and belief is that animals were created to live outdoors with an abundance of open space. Thereby the bulk of our sheep flock is a pasture based flock that spends most of their lives in the open pasture with access to shelter as required (at certain points and seasons of the year). The sheep predominantly eat grass, plants and crops that are natural to them, ensuring good health and quality flavoured meat. Our main flock is a Dorset/Rideau Arcott ewe that is bred to a terminal sire to maximize lamb growth on pasture. We maintain a group of livestock protection dogs, (Great Pyrenees), with the flock, who protect the flock from natural predators. My father bought me my first two ewe lambs when I was 13 years old and the sheep have been my passion for the past 40 years. Our flock has ranged in size from a few ewes to a flock of 250. Today we have a flock of approx. 170 ewes. We lamb once per year typically in May/June with some ewes lambing in the barn and some on pasture. The months of May and June are a busy time as Linda and I are very involved during lambing.
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We have approx. 220 acres of land plus some rented hay land. The pasture land is typically split into 5 acres fields (using high tensile fencing). There is a ¾ inch ploy pipe that provides water to all pastures. The 5 acres fields are then subdivided into smaller sections of approx. 1 acre each, using a portable fencing system that can be moved very quickly. The ewe and lamb flock is moved every 1 to 2 days to fresh grass. This allows for good growth, worm control and effective use of the grass. Once the field is grazed it gets a 30-40 day rest period (depending on time of year) to allow for good regrowth and health of the plant. The lambs are creep fed on pasture using a 3 in 1 feeder http://3in1feeders.com/ca/ which helps promote good growth and helps with controlling parasites. The better the condition of the lamb the more ability it has to withstand parasites. The lambs are weaned in August (depending on pasture quality) and placed on a grain and hay mix for finishing. Once the ewes are weaned they start to graze corn or another annual crop that we have planted for this purpose. This allows for our pasture fields to get a good summer rest allowing for excellent regrowth in the fall. We typically try to save some grass for late fall and early winter grazing or we grow a field of turnips that can be grazed into late December. Our goal is to have the ewes on pasture until the end of December. During the winter months we either roll out bales directly on the ground, in a winter pasture field or bring the ewes to the barn and feed hay from round bale feeders.
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Our pig herd is a mix of Tamworth and Large Black sows. The sows farrow in farrowing huts (see pictures) on pasture and their piglets are raised outside, alongside their mom with shelter in the farrowing huts. All the pigs have access to pasture, feed, water and shade. If weather is not suitable to farrow the sows on pasture, we are required to farrow in our large open barn with the piglets raised on a deep straw bed. Our piglets are not given any needles and we don’t clip their teeth or their tales. Our pigs are NOT raised in small pens or farrowing crates. We work very hard to ensure that our pigs can do what pigs best and that is to graze, root, eat and wallow in mud. We feel that our farming style provides meat that is second to none in quality and taste. I hope you will try our meat and that you will agree.
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