Name John & Eadie Steele
Location Norwood
Phone # (705) 696-1491
e-mail address [email protected]
Flock Size
900 Breeds
in Flock Crossbreds and
Texels
Our flock is on an accelerated lambing cycle, 3 times in 2 years. The entire flock is a stabilized crossbred
Rideau Arcott X Polled Dorset, developed through the OLIBS program. Flock rams and replacement ewes are selected
on EPD’s for maternal traits and multi trait indexes. Flock rams are selected from the top 1% of the entire lamb crop.
Our breeding stock is exclusively sold by private treaty, marketed by our
website, a booth at the Outdoor Farm
Show and magazine/newspaper
advertising. Our meat lambs are sold by
private treaty at Easter and Christmas.
We also use the Forward Contract Program and the Cookstown market at
other times of the year.
>From May to November we keep the flock on intensive rotational
grazing. Additional supplementation in
the form of a mineralized pellet is delivered through a snacker feeder. Winter-feeding consists of a TMR of haylage
and corn silage plus minerals and supplements.
Market lambs are fed entirely on a whole grain ration.
One or two specific issues you have faced in your
flock and your solutions.
When we started, we had a lot of trouble finding large groups of
uniform ewes from one source, to start our flock. So we joined the OLIBS program in 1995. Our predation problems have been drastically reduced by a
combination of well-maintained electric fencing, intensive rotational grazing
and guard Llamas.
Flock Health Program
We have attained Level 2 status on the Ontario Sheep Health
Program. Our flock is vet-certified
free of Maedi Visna, Contagious Foot rot, Caseous Lymphadenitis, Scrapie,
Johne’s Disease and Chylamydia Abortion.
We have worked toward this certification through regular blood testing
and monitoring of the flock.
Breeding Strategy
All ewes are single sire mated and recorded on SFIP and Ewebyte. Ewe lambs are expected to lamb at one year
of age. Replacement ewes are selected
for maternal traits under intensive management conditions. We target our ewes to wean their own body
weight in lambs each year. i.e. A 180
lb ewe should be able to wean, at 50 days of age, three 60 lb lambs per year.
Please list any Breeding Stock / Meat / Milk / Wool
that you have for sale.
Because we lamb three times a year, we have replacement ewe lambs for
sale throughout the year. We also offer
health-matched terminal sires to create a complete flock package for our
buyers. We have imported over 100 Texel
embryos from New Zealand of varied bloodlines.
Ram lambs will be available in autumn, 2002.
Any special tips that you would like to share with other producers.
Our philosophy, while growing our operation, was to only invest in capital items that would not become obsolete once the flock expanded. We have simplified our flock housing/feeding by keeping it modular. Reduced stress on the shepherd and the sheep during routine procedures is vital to the health of both. i.e. have a good handling system
