Story by Randy Eros & Photos by Chris Arndt. Above: Stephanie, Chris, and Maddie Arndt on their farm near Barrhead, Alberta

Stephanie and Chris Arndt are a young fourth-generation farm couple, who along with the fifth generation, their two-year-old daughter Maddie, run Sheep Wrangler Farms near Barrhead, Alberta. The farm is an hour and twenty minutes northeast of Edmonton. They farm 640 acres of their own land and rent another 600 acres. The 700 head flock is made up of both commercial and purebred animals. They also have a 90 head Charolais cross cow herd.

Cattle, grain farming and 4-H sheep were part of both Stephanie and Chris’s growing up.
Their sheep flock has grown substantially from the original 70 ewes that they picked up at a flock dispersal sale. “We’ve added some Suffolk genetics from Jordan Livestock and from Ken and Grace Small,” said Stephanie. “There are 20 Ile de France and 80 Suffolk in the Registered flock with the rest commercial cross ewes.”

This is an extensive operation with long season grazing. The mature flock, 550 head, lambs out in late December and January. The replacement ewe lambs, 150 head, are bred for a March lambing. “We find splitting the lambing reduces stress, especially on the replacement ewes”, said Chris. With the exception of a day or two in the lambing jugs the flock spends the year outside.

The lambing barn includes a small residential area; with 550 ewes lambing during the coldest months of the year, round the clock management is the order of the day. The barn is set up with claiming pens for 60 ewes and a step-down area. As the ewes drop their lambs they are moved into the barn and placed in the claiming pens. At 24 hours the lambs will have rings put on their tails and get injections of vitamins A & E and selenium. They also get a .5 cc dose of long-acting penicillin.

The ewes and lambs step down into a mixing area before heading back outside. Stephanie smiles, remembering how busy lambing can get, “Our busiest 24 hours last year, 108 lambs, that’s a lot of tags to apply.”

Above: 20 lb. market lambs, ready to go.

The crossbred lambs get a management tag in the claiming pen and their CSIP tags only when they leave the farm. The purebred lambs will get a management tag and a single CSIP tag in the pens. They will be tattooed at weaning if they are going to be registered. Most of the ewes have twins with the occasional triplets either being grafted or raised on a Lak-Tec milk machine. “We find about 80% of the grafts take”, Stephanie shared, “it helps that we’re in the barn all the time, if you get your timing right it’s easier.” The management tags are hand marked and will include two dots to indicate twins. They use Shearwell software for data record keeping on the purebred flock and use paper records for the commercial animals. “We cull pretty hard” said Stephanie, “very hands on: good legs, good teeth and good bags all matter. We don’t keep replacements off ewes we cull for bad bags, just doesn’t make sense.” Open ewes are culled from the commercial flock but they normally carry the replacement ewe lambs over if they don’t catch their first year.

Above: Lots of lambs means lots of tags.

The replacement ewe lambs will lamb out in March, the weather is milder and the group a lot smaller so the workload is not nearly the same.

The ewes and lambs are fed in the yard until weaning. The lambs have free-choice access to a farm mixed creep ration. 50% barley, 25% peas and 25% oats are mixed with a mineral from Taurus Premix in Cardston, Alberta. “We also add a rumen conditioner to the creep,” said Stephanie “we are seeing real growth in the lambs.” The feed is all grown on the farm and mixed using a hammermill and fed in 3-in-1 creep feeders. Bovatec is added to the lambs’ creep to control coccidia. The lambs are weaned at 8 weeks and will be vaccinated at that time. After weaning the ewes are moved out to pasture while the lambs will be finished in the yard. The market lambs continue on creep and hay until they are ready for market, 120 to 130 lb. The early market lambs are generally finished by the end of May. Last year they were able to add their market lambs to a Westfine Meats contract and ship them to the Innisfail plant. They prefer selling the market lambs directly to buyers but have used the auction yards as well.

Above: Filling one of the lamb’s feed wagons straight from the hammer mill.

The replacement ewe lambs are separated and taken off the creep by the time they reach 100 lbs.

The flock is shorn in mid-May. John Beasley, a local Alberta shearer, comes in with a few New Zealand shearers and does the flock. With the recent low wool prices, the Arndts haven’t sold wool for a few years. The ewe flock heads out to graze from the end of May until as late in November as the weather will allow. A team of five Livestock Guardian Dogs (a mix of Kangal, Akbash and Great Pyrenees) protect the flock. Coyotes are the biggest challenge though black bears and cougars are on the list of potential threats. “Ravens have started to be a problem as well” said Stephanie, “they will land on a ewe in the pasture and peck a hole in their hide.”

Above: One of the five livestock guardian dogs protecting the flock.

The Arndts put up their forage as haylage in tube-wrapped bales. “We use a 14’ discbine, we’re making 4’ x 6’ bales, it works best for us with a low tractor RPM and a higher ground speed,” said Chris. Most years they will get three cuts of hay. They have been seeding the hay fields as pure alfalfa stands, seeded at 28lbs/acre. A forage analysis from a 2023 sample showed 35% moisture, 21.4 % protein and a TDN of 62.4 %. “We’re pretty happy with those numbers,” said Chris, with a smile. The pastures are a mix of grass and forages that includes milkvetch and sainfoin.

Above: A good start to the haying season.

The ewes are only fed grain, as a supplement to their pasture diet during flushing. That flushing ration is 70% peas mixed with 30% oats. The ewes will get up to 2.5 lbs/head/day of the grain mix. The ewes are brought into the yard and fed the ration through fence-line feeders using their skid steer. Chris was quite happy with including peas as part of the flushing diet, “The peas for flushing has really bumped up our lambing percentage, we are sitting at just over 200%.” For the winter feeding, and while they are in the yard with their lambs, the ewes are fed haylage, free-choice in 30’ long bunks.

Above: Ewes feeding from one of the 30′ hay feeders.

Rotational grazing helps to minimize parasite problems. The flock doesn’t have a regular worming schedule. “We spot worm” said Chris “less than 10% need worming, any repeat offenders get culled pretty quickly.”

While the commercial part of the operation puts the most lambs on the ground, the purebred and registered animals are an important part of the operation. Stephanie shared some of their plans: “We work with Dr. Lynn Tait at OC Flock Management for our AI work. This year we bred five of our registered Ile de France ewes with semen sourced from France and 10 of the registered Suffolk ewes were bred with UK sourced semen.” She continued, “We don’t bring many live animals onto the farm anymore. If we do, they are quarantined.”

Above: The ram pen, a mix of registered Sullfolk and Ile de France rams.

The family has taken the opportunity to get away from the farm and show their purebred animals at shows across Western Canada. Doing quite well both with ribbons and in the sale ring. On top of all the farm work, Chris and Stephanie both have off-farm jobs. Chris works for Alberta Pork, trapping wild pigs, and Stephanie is a journeyman pipefitter and crane operator in Slave Lake, a two-hour drive north.

The buildings on the Sheep Wranglers Farm are a little spread out. The wintering yard and lamb dry-lot is adjacent to the Arndt’s house while the lambing barn is located on the home quarter of Chris’s grandmother. The homes are within sight of each other and connected by grazing land: no need to haul the sheep; they can walk.

Above: A very busy barn, part way through lambing.

My producer visits are usually a mix of kitchen table chats and farm walks. While two-year old Maddie didn’t have a lot to contribute at the kitchen table, it was clear from the minute we stepped out the door that this was her farm. The dogs all had to be attended to and she waited patiently while we climbed fences or opened and closed gates to see the next group of sheep. If I was taking too much time talking with Stephane and Chris, Maddie would take my hand and move us along. There’s always something to be learned from our fellow shepherds, even the youngest ones.

Above: Maddie attending to one of the dogs.