Producer profile: Ferme Agronovie, Granby, QC

Oct 18, 2024 | Sample Articles, Volume 49 - 2024

Story & Photos by Randy Eros. Above: Christian Beaudry, Marie-France Bouffard, Félix Beaudry, Lee-Anna Mahannah and David Beaudry in the finishing barn.

Marie-France Bouffard and Christian Beaudry and their family run a flock of 900 registered Rideau Arcott sheep just outside of Granby, Québec, a 45-minute drive east of Montreal. Christian grew up on the farm, which at the time was a dairy operation. The dairy quota was sold in 1990 and in 2005 Christian and Marie-France bought the farm from Mr. Beaudry. The farm is 350 acres altogether, 150 acres with the house and barns and the other 200 acres of tillable land nearby. Their adult children, Charles, David, Myriam and Félix along with David’s partner Lee-Anna Mahannah, are all involved in the farm operation.

The entire flock is purebred and registered with all of the animals enrolled in the GenOvis genetic improvement program. This adds a significant workload to an already busy operation but the results are impressive.

There are four main buildings making up the operation: the breeding/lambing barn, the feeder barn, the finishing barn and the nursery.

Above: The breeding/lambing barn, note the windows stop half way down the building.

The breeding and lambing barn was built in 2018 and is quite large at 322’ x 88’. It was designed specifically for their sheep operation. “We wanted to expand the operation and needed a better setup,” explained Marie-France. “Previously our breeding and lambing operations were in two buildings, this has brought all the ewes together in one building.” The barn is split in two 150’ sections with a 20’- wide handling area dividing the two sides. The building is fully enclosed and they use light-control to stimulate estrus. Long days of light followed by shorter days just prior to breeding. There are no windows in the light-control end of the barn.

They run an accelerated program; the flock lambs five times a year, with each ewe lambing every nine months. Ewes are bred in groups of 17 or 18. There were 13 separate breeding groups in the breeding barn at the time of my visit. Teaser rams are put in with the ewes 14 days before breeding. The rams, one per group, are left in with the ewes for 35 days. On average, 85% of the ewes will catch in the 1st cycle. That number improves when they are in-season breeding. The ewes will be scanned 40 days after the rams are removed and any open ewes are moved into the next breeding group. “We shear the ewes at the same time as we do the ultrasound scan,” said Christian. “Shorn sheep make for easier management at lambing and this way we’re handling them only once.” The ewes will also be vaccinated with Glanvac 6 at the same time. Jean-Michel Popik is their shearer.

The latest 12-month lambing data from GenOvis shows 2.7 live lambs per ewe at each lambing. The ewes are lambing 1.31 times per year and average 2.97 lambs weaned per ewe/year.

Above: The lambing barn feed alley with sections of 8″ plastic drain tile.

Above: The nursery barn, cleaned and ready for the next group of lambs.

The barn is designed so that the pens can be adjusted for size as needed. The ewes are fed through fence-line feeders along the alleyways. The head space is 9” high and they have sections of 8” plastic drainage tile sitting along the wooden rails. David explained their pen setup. “We had all the penning built to our specs, so it’s easily adjustable. We want 1.5’ of feeding space for pregnant ewes and 1.1’ once they’ve lambed. The drainage tile is easily pushed up by the ewes, allowing then to access the feed but it prevents the lambs from sneaking out of the pens.” It’s not foolproof, he said. “If the bedding gets too high a few escape artists will find their way out.”

The breeding flock is fed a TMR ration of corn silage, soya meal, dry hay and haylage. The hay fields are a mix of orchard grass, rye grass and timothy. The haylage is peas and alfalfa. For late gestation and lactation ewes the TMR is top dressed with 250g/day/head of 12% supplement and glycol for additional energy. They include 15mg/head/day of monensin in this ration.

Above: Nasal spray as a vaccination for pneumonia. 

The newborn lambs will spend 24 to 48 hours in a claiming pen. The ewe will raise two lambs with the additional lambs being moved to the nursery. The lambs are tagged and docked in the claiming pen. The lambs have access to a creep feed with a purchased 19 % crumble ration. At three weeks of age the lambs receive a nasal spray that protects from pneumonia and a Glanvac 6 vaccination. The lambs that are raised with the ewes will be weaned at 50 to 60 days and moved to the feeder barn.

Above: Breeding groups in the light controlled section of the barn.

The nursery barn will see 100 to 120 lambs from each lambing. They use two Grober Milk machines, each one central to a series of small pens. David explained “We like groups of 10 to 15 lambs, the younger the lambs, the smaller the group.” The machines are cleaned daily and the building cleaned and disinfected between groups. Lambs will be weaned at 30 days or 13 kg and moved to the feeder barn. They include peat moss in the bedding for the nursery lambs. “It helps control the humidity and that means fewer problems with pneumonia.” They maintain the nursery barn temperature at 12°C during the winter. There were nods of agreement from everyone when Félix commented that the nursery barn “is where we make the most money ‘per square foot’ on the farm, we want to make sure it works.”

The lambing barn is cleaned out and disinfected after each lambing. The whole barn will get a high-pressure wash once a year to keep the interior white. They do this in the fall after the fly season is over. Proper ventilation is a big part of managing the barn. In the summer the two sections of the barn can be ventilated together with open doors. This air movement also helps control biting flies. During the winter they manage the two sections separately. “We want to keep the section where the ewes are lambing at 13° C, the rest of the flock is comfortable at 5-8° C” Christian explained. The two sections of the barn are separated by a light-trap. This is an idea they borrowed from poultry barns. It allows for the full length of the barn to be ventilated; air can pass through the wall, but not light. This means that the light-control, that is so important in the breeding program, is not affected by light leaking from one side of the barn to the other.

Above: The Agrident tag reader, the best so far.

Above: Breeding group selections for the November 2024 lambing.

Above: Ram selection data.

With the entire flock enrolled in the GenOvis program there is a lot of data to collect. Marie-France smiled when I asked about reading ear tags and entering data; “we are using Ewe Manage as our software along with an Agrident reader that works really well. We’ve spent a lot of money on readers over the years, I think we must have tried them all.”

Above: The light-trap, allowing air to travel between the sections of the barn.

The weaned lambs are moved to the 42’ X 150’ feeder barn. They are fed a free choice ration through an automatic augured feeding system. This ration is three parts whole corn and 1 part 38% supplement. The added mineral is medicated with Deccox. They also have access to 2nd cut grass hay. The average daily gain across the flock is 0.35 kgs/day. Each lambing produces a minimum of 400 lambs and the feeder barn is operating at its maximum capacity. Doubling the size of the feeder barn might be the next upgrade on the farm.

Above: The 42′ x 100′ Feeder barn with the automatic feeding system.

Lamb mortality has been a challenge over the years, running as high as 20% at one point. Vaccinating the ewes for Q-fever and the lambs for pneumonia has helped a lot. The current mortality rate is 14%, but that number includes pre-natal deaths, basically anything that can be identified as a lamb. The mortality from live birth to weaning is between five and six percent.

The lambs are separated by sex and size when they do the 100-day weights. The ultrasound scan is done on the loins and each animal will get a physical evaluation looking at teeth, teats, testicles and physical appearance. Most of the ewe lambs will either be kept as replacements or sold to other flocks. The replacement rate for their ewes is roughly 20%/year. At four months of age the ewe lambs are switched over to the standard TMR ration, top dressed with whole corn. The retained ewe lambs are bred at nine months.

The selection process for replacement rams is very strict; they are looking for genetic improvement. Christian put it “We want the best of the best.” They have 40 to 50 rams on hand and use young rams. “We will use them once or twice and then sell them.” From the last group of 225 ram lambs only 12 were kept for breeding. First, they do a visual assessment; the animal must look good. Then they review the GenOvis numbers. They are selecting animals with performance indexes above 85%. Finally, they are looking for animals that genotype RR for scrapie resistance. Rams that genotype QR will only be considered if they have very strong performance indexes. The final selection for replacement rams happens when the rams are seven to eight months old. To ensure that they are making unbiased selections they ask an outside classifier, Rejean Girard, to look at the rams and their data.

Once the rams have been added to the pool of breeding animals there is still the decision of what animals will make up the next breeding groups. Marie-France shared some of the paperwork used in creating the latest breeding groups. She has developed a colour/symbol system that allows her to carry the paper-based decisions into the barn. “Once we’ve created the groups, we mark the backs of the ewes that will be bred to that specific ram.”

Rams that aren’t kept for breeding are finished to 55 kg and sold through Québec’s heavy lamb marketing program. “We contract for 60 lambs every four weeks,” Christian explained, “We might be able to do more but you don’t want to come up short. It’s far easier to negotiate selling a few extra lambs into the market.” The market lambs are finished in a separate hoop barn located on the other side of the farmyard.

Above: The Feed cart is able to access both sides of the barn.

Above: A group of ewes bred for November lambing. Note the ‘ram’ mark on their backs.

The farm uses 260 tonnes of feed each year. They do the seeding of their soya beans and corn and the cutting, raking and tedding of the hay. “This is a very strong agricultural community with lots of farmers. We have the harvesting, manure spreading and hay all done by custom contractors. By growing the feed and mixing the TMR on farm we save $100/tonne.”

They use 700 to 800 large square bales of wheat straw each year. One of the local farmers supplies some of that through a trade. He bales straw up for them from his winter wheat harvest in exchange for manure to fertilize his fields. The straw is stored in a hoop structure that plays double duty as a shelter for ewes in early gestation. This is the only time the ewes are outdoors. They have access to a fenced pasture. Deworming is not a regular task, if it becomes necessary, they use Ivomec.

The farm has expanded beyond the sheep operation in recent years. Charles and David have partnered with their parents to establish Pépinère Abora, a 75-acre tree nursery. They already have 87,000 trees, predominantly cedar with some spruce. When fully planted the nursery will have an inventory of 160,00 trees and include Christmas tree production.

Though life centers around the farm there is a lot more going on. Agronovie was front and centre at the All Canada Sheep Classic this year. Richmond is just an hour’s drive and their participation netted them the Championship ribbon for their Rideau yearling ram.

Félix and Lee-Anna participated in an international young shepherd’s competition ‘Ovinpiades Mondial’ in France at the end of May. Representing Canada, they participated in the week-long event testing and highlighting their skills.

Above: Lee-Anna Mahannah competing in Ovinpiades Mondial in France, Photo by Ferme Agrinovie.

It is no surprise that participation and education are part of the farm life. Both Christian and Marie-France have agriculture degrees. The younger generation is bringing a new mix of skills to the operation through their educations in farm business management, animal production, and agricultural economics.

The whole family at Agronovie farm is working with their large flock of registered Rideau sheep to develop and improve the breed through genetic selection and good management. High quality sheep, combined with producer knowledge, hard work and attention to detail has created a farm that produces prime market lambs and more importantly, excellent breeding stock.

Above: Bred ewes in the outdoor paddock, they will move into the barn for lambing.

Producer Profile: Loch Lomond Livestock Ltd., Eyebrow, Saskatchewan

Jul 4, 2024 | Sample Articles, Volume 49 - 2024

Story By Randy Eros. Photos by Sheep Canada & Brooke Aitken

Brooke Aitken and Chris Howard’s farm, Loch Lomond Livestock Ltd., is a 45-minute drive from the Trans-Canada highway. I turned north at Moose Jaw and drove through what can best be described as ‘the middle of the Canadian prairie.’ Section after section of flat, open fields, waiting patiently for warm weather and spring seeding.

I followed Brooke’s detailed instructions (turn left at the gravel piles), and as I approached the farm there was a subtle change in the land. After miles of grain and oil seed fields I started to see a few fences. A little rise and fall to the land and again more fences. The power to the farms in this area is all trenched in, there are no power poles to block the view of the prairie landscape. Saskatchewan’s licence plate motto, Land of Living Skies, came to mind.

Top: Chris Howard and Brooke Aitken take a minute with the dogs after feeding the flock. Above: Brooke hauling two bales for the ewe flock’s daily feeding.

Fences, pastures and hay land dominated the landscape as I followed another grid road and pulled up to the farm. A welcoming committee of curious livestock guardian dogs kept me entertained while I waited for Brooke and Chris to come across the yard with the tractor carrying two hay bales for the ewe flock.

The flock of 280 ewes and 70 ewe lambs is mostly Clun Forest and Clun Forest cross. The cross bred ewes have Dorset, Romney, Blue Faced Leicester and Dorper influences. Brooke and Chris also run a herd of 120 Angus cross cow/calf pairs.

The operation runs on 26 quarters of land or 4,160 acres. It is all grazing and hay land with six of the quarters leased from the Nature Conservancy. Brooke is the third generation in her family to farm this land. “My grandparents, Bruce and Lorna Aitkin bought the farm in 1942, my folks John and Sandra took over in 1969. We farmed with my folks till 2021 when they retired and moved off the farm, although they are still involved and help out, especially in the busy season ” For Brooke, sheep have always been part of the farm. “Mom and Dad started with them in the 70’s and I remember getting my first five ewes when I was five years old.”

Brooke went to the University of Saskatchewan and has a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Science with a Master’s studying maternal behaviours in beef cows. When I asked Brooke why she chose to study cows and not sheep, her response “Not enough research money in sheep, but there is in cattle.” She came back to the farm in 2010. Chris is a fifth-generation farmer growing up on a local grain farm. After high school he worked with heavy equipment in the oil industry but has been on the farm full time since 2020.

Brooke expanded the sheep flock by sourcing stock from several breeders over the years. “Mary Dobson, from Herbert, SK sold us some very nice Cluns in 2013 and in 2021 we picked up all of Glynn Brooks purebred stock in Lethbridge, AB. The following year we brought some more Clun Forest in from BC out of Dennis Lapierre’s flock.”

The 35′ x 65′ hoop barn on shearing day.

Most of the rams are Clun Forest with Canadian Arcott. There are Blue Faced Leicester and coloured Romney to add some fleece variety. While they will keep some ram lambs, both for breeding and for sale, they wait till they’re yearlings to make their selections. Brooke explained; “The lambs that look best in the fall are usually the singles, but a few months on pasture can really show what they’re made of, the one I liked best in the fall is not always the one I like best the following spring.”

Individual fleeces, all labelled with the ewe’s name and ready to go.

Brooke and Chris have worked with Dr. Lynn Tait of OC Flock Management to help them introduce some new genetics. They have sourced UK semen through Heritage Sheep Reproduction in the US and had Dr. Tait come and do the laparoscopic insemination at their local veterinary clinic. “There are a limited number of registered Clun Forest animals in Canada, this helps to diversify the genetics,” said Brooke, adding “you can see the differences in our 2nd generation British Cluns, smaller ears and darker faces.”

The ewe flock winters on an open 160-acre pasture adjacent to the farmyard. Wooden wind breaks provide shelter and the sheep have hay bales unrolled daily. The winter water source for the sheep is piped underground and delivered using Stockboss energy free waterers. The ewe lambs are in a separate, adjacent field. The flock grazes year-round but they start feeding hay by November in most years. The ewe lambs will each get a pound of oats per day. This year they have added a small amount of flax screenings. As a pasture and hay-based operation the sheep and cattle numbers can vary depending on moisture levels. “The sheep numbers are down a bit right now because we’ve seen some drought the last few years”, Brooke shared. “We need to put up 1300 bales a year for winter feed and that really depends on the rain.” Lamb prices and available feed will influence the size of their flock.

The flock is sheared in early April and makes use of the only sheep building on the farm. The 35’ x 65’ hoop structure is the centre of the day’s activity. Lorrie Reed, a Saskatchewan shearer and his crew of three to six get the whole flock done in one very busy day. “Lots of help needed that day” says Brooke, “We have three skirting tables and even then, it’s a bit of a challenge to keep up with the shearers.” The fleeces are skirted and as many as 70 will be packed and labelled individually for direct sale to fibre artists across Canada. Brooke is quite happy with the scope of the fleece sales, “We’ve sold fleeces into every province, still working on the territories.”

Brooke’s pack with all the tools needed for pasture lambing.

Each of the 350 sheep in the Loch Lomond flock has a name and the select fleeces are labelled and sold under the ewe’s name. This marketing technique brings some real customer loyalty with return customers looking for the same fleeces year after year. In one case a fleece was spun and woven into a blanket by a fibre artist as a gift for her father, an elderly man living with dementia. He can’t remember the names of his nurses but he knows the name of the sheep his wool blanket comes from. Brooke sent him pictures of the ewe.

The ‘ewe-haul’ is a way for Brooke to easily bring a ewe and her lambs back to the yard if they need extra care.

They will send some wool to Custom Woolen Mills in Carstairs, AB to be spun into yarn and made into quilting batts and roving. These are marketed directly from the farm and through retail operations in Saskatoon, Regina and Outlook. The remaining wool has been stockpiled for the last three years waiting for commercial prices to improve.

The rams are turned in on December 17th, with the start of lambing targeted for May 10th. The ewe lambs and ewes are combined into one flock and lambed out on pasture. They follow a ‘drift lambing’ process. The group is moved forward in the pasture every one to three days. The newly lambed ewes will stay with their lambs while the un-lambed ewes drift to the next pasture. The next move will repeat the process. Every few days the groups of lambed ewes will be combined. There are usually 3 different groups: unlambed, newly lambed and ewes with older lambs.

Early 2024, lush summer pasture. A welcome change from last year’s drought.

Brooke uses the Shearwell Management System for her record keeping. The lambs are processed, usually between 12 and 36 hours of age. They are tagged, have rings put on their tails and the crossbred males are castrated with rings. Each lamb gets a CSIP tag but the process differs for purebred and crossbred lambs. All purebred lambs are tagged with the double CSIP tags and their birth weights are recorded. Crossbred ewe lambs will get a single CSIP tag and a management tag, the crossbred wethers just get the single CSIP tag. Each lamb has the last 2 digits of the CSIP tag sprayed on their side, this makes it easier to manage lambs in the field and know where they belong. Changing the paint colour every 100 lambs makes it easier to keep track of the lambs’ ages.

Ewe lambs that are retained for breeding will get an additional management tag later on. This is when Brooke has the fun of naming the ewes. She follows the Canadian Livestock Records Corporation’s (CLRC) letter protocols. Ewe lambs from this spring’s lamb crop, if they are kept for breeding, will all have names that begin with M. The management tag is large enough to write the ewe’s name and number as well as her dam’s name.

One of six LGDs that protect the flock.

They follow the same process for tagging the calves. Brooke and Chris certainly help each other out, but they have found it works best to split the spring responsibilities. Brooke does most of the work with lambing while Chris is the lead with calving.

The flock average is hovering around 1.6 lambs/ewe, a little lower for the ewe lambs. Brooke speculated on improving that number. “I would like to move up a little, 1.7 maybe 1.8, anything above that is going to mean too many triplets, we want to keep bottle lambs to a minimum.” The few extra lambs they have, are raised on free-choice milk replacer with pails and nipples.

Once lambing is finished the flock will spend the rest of the growing season rotating through the farm’s many pastures. With lambs at foot the flock will run near 800 head. Pasture sizes range from 20 to 80 acres and they move the flock every 5 to 10 days depending on the available feed. There is a mix of new and old fences throughout the farm. Older barbed wire fence will have hi-tensile hot wires added. Any new fencing for the sheep is 4 strand hitensile, all hot. Cross fencing of pastures is done with 2 strands of hot wire set up on rebar posts. They offer loose, chelated minerals to the grazing flock in covered tubs.

They use Speedrite energizers to charge the fences, a large plug-in unit at the farmyard and several 12 volt/ solar charged units throughout the pastures. “We often water near the electric fence to keep the sheep trained” said Brooke, “Ewes that don’t respect fences are kept separate and culled at the earliest opportunity, we don’t want bad habits to spread.”

Water is either piped or trucked to the pastures.

Water is supplied to many of the pastures through a shallow, buried pipeline. Where they don’t have access to the piped water they use a 1250-gallon tank in the back of an old grain truck. The tank is either filled from a dugout or at the Municipal well a few miles from their yard.

The cattle are rotated through pastures in the same way. Chris commented “We haven’t been moving them as often as the sheep but we’re headed that way. Quicker rotations seem to make better use of the grass.”

Livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) and herding dogs are part of the operation. There are six LGDs in total including a Kangal, Komondor/Pyrenees and Maremmas. Coyotes are part of the landscape and have been a challenge in the past. Chris talked about the current situation: “Not a real issue right now, one of our dogs, Odin has been very effective, no losses of late.” They have a GPS tracking collar they will use to occasionally monitor a dog’s activities. In a 24-hr period one of the dogs travelled a total of 18 km, all within a km of the farmyard. “This really keeps the coyotes at a distance.” The five herding dogs include four Border Collies and a ¾ Kelpie cross. Using a full bag of dog food each week is a real expense; they buy theirs by the pallet load. Chris and Brooke both gave a nod of appreciation to Jared Epp, a Saskatchewan dog trainer. He sold them two of their herding dogs and they came with lots of help and advice. This has made moving and handling the flock a lot smoother.

Internal parasites are managed through rotational grazing. The sheep are only dewormed if they need to be treated for something. Ewes will be culled for parasite susceptibility. “We participated in a parasite research study several years ago, back then we would deworm the flock regularly, we’ve gotten away from that,” said Brooke. Chris added, “one of the few good things about the recent drought years is the lack of worms. Less moisture has us moving the flock more often, just to chase the grass, and that also helps with parasite control.”

Lambs on pasture under Saskatchewan’s ‘Living Skies’

The ewes and rams are vaccinated with Glanvac 6 after shearing, three to four weeks before lambing. The lambs will get vaccinated with Glanvac 6 towards the end of July and then boosted at weaning. For the last two years they have added a pneumonia vaccine for the ewes at the same time as their initial pre-lambing Glanvac 6 injection. The lambs receive the same pneumonia vaccine when they are getting their first dose of Glanvac 6. Replacement ewe lambs get an initial chlamydia vaccine in mid-October with all the breeding females getting booster in mid-November.

While the flock is grazing there is hay to be made. Central Saskatchewan is dry and usually yields just one cut of hay each year. They put up 1300 bales each summer to feed the sheep and cattle. The 5’ x 6’ bales are dry hay and weigh between 1300 and 1400 lb. There is both native grass and seeded hay. The seeded fields are a mix of brome, alfalfa, cicer milkvetch and sainfoin. They are using a 16-foot MacDon mower conditioner on an 85 hp Massey Ferguson tractor to cut their hay. Their 135 hp Kubota pulls double duty; both baling the hay in the summer and unrolling it in the winter.

The lambs are weaned in September and marketed as feeder lambs, averaging 75 lb. They have sold the lambs through the Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board for the last five years. Brooke talked about some of the advantages in doing it this way, “The lambs get picked up as one load, which is nice. The buyers are bidding on the lambs and if we’re not happy with what’s offered we can pass and wait for better prices. We did that last fall, held on to the lambs until December when the prices came up.”

A farm sign from Nature Saskatchewan recognizing Loch Lomond Livestock Ltd. and their commitment to the environment.

Because of the low prices in 2023 they held back and exposed an extra 115 ewe lambs. They had their veterinarian, Dr. Rhonda Heinrichs of the Living Skies Veterinary Clinic come out and pregnancy check the ewe lambs. They were able to sell the open ones as lambs into the Easter market at a premium.

As grassland farmers, Brooke and Chris are very conscientious of their environment. They partner with Nature Saskatchewan, a non-profit organization working with land owners to conserve Saskatchewan’s natural environment.

The size of their operation is working well. Life is always easier on a pasture-based operation when you get the moisture you need and, like everyone else, when the lamb prices are up. Their willingness to work with the land and grow or shrink the flock is part of what makes the farm work. Value adding fleeces also adds extra income. I asked Brooke how the farm got its name, Loch Lomond Livestock. “The Aitken’s family originally comes from Scotland” she said “and we had an uncle who called our camping spot Loch Lomond, it just sort of stuck.”

Producer Profile: Dusty Ridge Ranch Grunthal, Manitoba

Mar 26, 2024 | Sample Articles, Volume 49 - 2024

Story by Randy Eros. Photos by Dusty Ridge Ranch

An hour’s drive south of Winnipeg, just past the small town of Grunthal, Manitoba will get you to the Dusty Ridge Ranch. Harold and Sherry Bosma and five of their nine children run a 230 head sheep flock out of a re-purposed dairy barn. They run three separate flocks: 45 registered Tunis, 132 registered Canadian Arcott and 53 F1 and crossbred ewes. The Bosma family has been raising sheep here for seven years now, but the real story behind the Dusty Ridge Ranch sheep operation actually starts with goats.

The Bosma Family, left to right: Harold, Ciarra, Taquayla, Toby, Cruz, Sherry and Faith.

In July of 2017 the Bosmas had been working for several years to develop a goat operation. Both Sherry and Harold have rural backgrounds and they wanted to create a farm operation that would provide Sherry with a home-based job. The herd of 115 Boer/Kiko does was growing nicely when on July 4, 2017 they received a call from the CFIA asking about a scrapie suspect goat and wondering if it had originated on their farm. By the end of August, the goats were all gone. As devastating as it was to their farm and family there were a lot of excited scientists knocking on the backdoor. Sherry’s record keeping and attention to detail had provided the CFIA with an impressive database that has helped with genotyping for scrapie resistance in goats.

The handling system set up in the repurposed dairy barn. Below: Genotyping information from the CFIA.

With fully disinfected and empty barns the family was at a bit of a crossroads and not sure what was next. It was the team from the CFIA that planted the seed with Sherry and Harold when they mentioned that it was possible to genotype sheep for resistance to scrapie. “They were impressed with how we managed both our animals and our records and encouraged us to keep going”, said Sherry. By December of 2017, with the research done and the decisions made, Dusty Ridge Ranch started their genotyped, scrapie resistant flock. Over the next five years the CFIA staff would come to collect samples from on-farm mortalities (12 months or older) as part of their surveillance program. “They were great, I got lots of encouragement and great vet advice during their visits. They even remembered what we took in our coffee and what kind of Timbits the kids liked.”

Click to enlarge. EweManage and Allflex used for data recording and management (left). Sherry scanning for open ewes (middle). Overflow claiming pens set up in the handling area (right). 

Breeding for scrapie resistance is paramount in their operation (see the sidebar for more information on genotyping for scrapie resistance). All of the ewes are either genotyped RR or QR and the breeding rams are all genotyped RR. To get started with the Tunis they sourced 40 ewes through Mark and Bev Comfort of Cardinal, Ontario. The registered Tunis came directly from the Comfort flock, the crossbreds from two flocks with Comfort Tunis genetics. All of the animals were genotyped for resistance.

The Canadian Arcott flock came from Gerrit and Ute Brinkman, Medicine Ridge Ovine in New Norway, Alberta. “We had to be patient with the Canadians,” said Sherry “because we were after genotyped, scrapie resistant ewe lambs, a group had to be specially bred for us.” The 50 ewe lambs were all eventually registered and along with three unrelated RR registered rams became the foundation of their Canadian Arcott flock.

My visit to Dusty Ridge Ranch started, as most visits do, with a chat at the kitchen table. Sherry, Harold and their daughter Faith filled me in on the details of the operation. Faith, 19 years old, took a rare afternoon off from her studies at the University of Manitoba where she is pursuing a degree in Ag. Business. The attention to detail that impressed the CFIA scientists was evident as Sherry flipped through GenOvis information, DNA test results, CSBA records and Tunis registration certificates. Harold proudly talked about their breeding programs, “We have seven distinct sire lines with the Tunis and six more with the Canadians, 16 registered rams of each breed.” One of the recent highlights for the Bosmas is the importation of two registered yearling Tunis rams from Wisconsin. There is no Canadian registration for the Tunis breed, so all of the records come through the National Tunis Sheep Registry in the United States.

Harold making use of the turn-table to trim feet on a Tunis ram.

The current schedule has them lambing four times over the course of the year, between December and May. The goal is to eventually move to where each ewe will lamb three times every two years. It is all ‘natural’ breeding and they have had good success breeding ewes that are still lactating. They will breed one ram to groups of between 15 and 25 ewes, depending on the ram’s age. They lamb out a total of 60 ewes in each of the four lambings.

Sherry scans the ewes 40 to 45 days after the rams have been pulled. “Our scanning chute is quick and easy to set up, I have a 95% accuracy rate determining if the ewes are bred. Now I want to work on being able to count the number of fetuses each ewe is carrying.” Sherry has worked closely with their veterinarian, Dr. Earl Van Assen, to hone her skills with the scanner. The Canadian ewe lambs are bred to lamb at 12 months of age. Scanning and pulling out any open ewe lambs after breeding means those animals can still be shipped as market lambs. The Tunis ewe lambs are bred to lamb at 15 months.

The drop area for the lambs and claiming pens are all portable, so there is flexibility in how things are set up. The ewes are shorn a month prior to lambing and will be run through the handling system again three weeks before lambing for their Glanvac 6 vaccination booster. The rams and any of the ewes that were missed through the year are sheared in the spring. “The first fleece off of the Tunis ewe lambs is a beautiful colour and is popular with artisans,” said Harold. “We market some of those directly, the rest is commercial wool”.

The ewes and lambs are placed in the jugs after lambing and will spend one or two days there before moving into a step-down group. The lambing rate for the two breeds is the same. “The ewe lambs will give us 1.85 – 1.9 and the mature ewes run between 2 and 2.15.” said Harold. The ewes, ewe lambs included, are expected to raise twins. The average birth weight on the lambs is 10.8 lb. Triplets and the occasional quad are raised in a small nursery using a LacTeck milk replacer machine. They have had good success with the Cargill/Purina brand milk replacer.

The lambs are weighed, tagged and docked (rings) in the claiming pen, all of the males are left intact. Every lamb gets two tags. The registered Canadian Arcott lambs are tagged with the dual CSIP tags. Crossbred lambs receive a regular CSIP tag and a management tag. Because there is no Canadian registry for the Tunis, they cannot use the dual CSIP tags. The registered Tunis lambs get a regular CSIP tag and a different management tag identifying them as registered.

The view from one of the five barn cameras.

The barns are monitored with both hard-wired and wi-fi cameras. “One of the best investments we’ve made,” said Sherry. “We have five in use now with three more ready to install, they save an awful lot of time.”

The barns at Dusty Ridge Ranch are all interconnected, making it easy to move the sheep to where they need to be. The old milkhouse (20’ x 40’) has counters, sinks, fridge, microwave, storage and office space. The adjacent handling area (30’ x 50’) houses the small nursery and provides a handy, heated area for all of the hands-on sheep work like vaccinations, hoof trimming, shearing and scanning. When not in use the Lakeland tub and chute can be set aside to make room for extra lambing jugs. Once the flock lambs out, they are moved from the lambing barn (35’ x 100’) into the bigger barn (90’ x 165’) that houses the majority of the flock. At the time of my visit, there was one group just finishing lambing, two groups already lambed out and a fourth group ready for shearing.

Harold has a strong farm background. He grew up on a dairy operation near Aylmer, Ontario, and has a diploma in Agriculture from Ridgetown College. He works as a ruminant nutritionist for IKC feeds which he says gives him a real advantage when it comes to feeding the sheep. “We buy all of our feed, so having a close eye on what feeds are available really helps.” Their cost to feed dry and early gestation ewes is currently 35 cents/head/day. That ration is a medium quality grass hay with corn screenings and a mineral mix, it tests at 13% protein. The late gestation and lactation ewes are getting a very nice third cut grass hay with corn screenings. These ewes are a little more expensive to feed, 50 cents/head/day and is 16% protein. He adds a small amount of malt sprouts to the late gestation and lactation rations, “It drives up the intake of the other feeds.” The hay is hand fed off of round bales, strategically placed throughout the barn. The hay and feed mix are fed in alleyway bunk feeders. The flock is fed twice a day and it takes 40 minutes for each round of chores.

A mix of Canadian Arcott and Tunis ewes lined up at the alleyway bunk feeders.

Lambs have early access to a 20% protein commercial pellet, medicated with monensin to prevent coccidiosis. The lambs receive their Glanvac 6 vaccine between 50 and 60 days of age, the same time as they are doing the 50-day weights. Two weeks prior to weaning the lambs will have been switched to a 17% on-farm mixed ration. The males and females are separated at weaning. Four weeks post weaning the ration is lowered again, this time to 15%.

The birth weights along with 50- and 100-day weights are sent to GenOvis, which then provides the farm with the genetic improvement information to help them select breeding stock. Last year they collected data on 529 lambs and that has helped them create some targets. “The first goal is to produce a healthy lamb; from there we want to see lambs that weigh one pound for every day they’ve been alive when they reach weaning.” The current average weaning weight is 52 lb, their target is 62 lb. The next goal is to reach 1 lb of gain/day between weaning and 100 days. Right now, they are a little short of that at .85 lb/day. The lambs that don’t go for breeding stock are sold as heavy feeder lambs to a local feed lot. They leave Dusty Ridge Ranch between 90 and 100 lb and the feedlot will finish them to 125 lb.

The flock is mostly in the barn, so internal parasites are not a big challenge. They have a 12-acre fenced pasture that includes a three-sided shelter. This is where they will keep groups of dry ewes. “This is more about property maintenance and having space to work the Border Collies,” said Harold. They run 3 Border Collies; Sherry and Faith are members of the Manitoba Stock Dog Association and have started participating in stock dog clinics and trials. The lambs never leave the barns. A single Pyrenees cross guardian dog and a llama keep the predators at bay.

Faith with Sam, one of the farm’s three Border Collies.

Harold and I talked about the two sheep breeds and how they compare. There are some similarities: prolificacy, seasonality in breeding, lambing rates, plenty of milk and both breeds are docile and easy to handle. He sees a good ‘meat to bone’ ratio in the Tunis and the long loin makes a very attractive market animal. Future plans include some loin scanning on market lambs. “We also like the narrow skull on the Tunis, it makes for easier lambing” he said. The Canadian Arcott has, in Harold’s opinion, a real will to live and a drive to feed. He is pleasantly surprised that the ewes are quite maternal for what is really a terminal breed.

Purebred and commercial breeding stock sales are a significant market for the farm. “Filling orders for custom breeding packages is working well”, said Harold. “One of our goals is to have satisfied, repeat customers, and we’re getting that.” The flock records are all tracked using Ewe Manage software and an Allflex reader. The Canadian Arcott, Tunis and commercial flocks are all enrolled on the GenOvis evaluation program. (www.genovis.ca)

A pen of Canadian Arcott, Tunis and crossbreds.

Genetic testing for scrapie resistance has helped the breeding stock sales. All rams that are retained for breeding or sold to breeders are RR. All of the ewes are either RR or QR. They have been using Gene Check out of Greely, Colorado for this work.

Even with all that goes on at home, the Bosma family is involved in lots of off-farm activities. Harold, Sherry and all of the children are involved in the local 4-H programs and community agricultural fairs. They worked with Agriculture in the Classroom-Manitoba to create a great 10-minute YouTube video on sheep farming (aitc.mb.ca – search for Bosma). Harold sits on the board of directors of the Manitoba Sheep Association and the Manitoba Forage and Grasslands Association.

The current operation achieves two goals the Bosma family had when they started raising livestock: to use all the buildings on the farm, and to provide stimulating home based jobs for the whole family. The four younger children Ciarra (16), Taquayla (14), Cruz (13) and Toby (12) are also involved in running the farm. Harold and Sherry laughed when they talked about all of the work that gets done. “They all have slightly different skill sets, one has a memory like a steel trap, another a real insight into what the sheep are going to do, they all bring something different to the barn.”