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Housing: Where do Sheep Live?
Places that sheep live are as diverse as the shepherds who care for them.
Some shepherds prefer to keep their flock in the barn year round where nutrition, lighting and lambing can be closely monitored and to offer protection from predators such as coyotes, wolves, bears, and even their neighbours’ pet dogs. Sheep are kept together in group pens in the barn.
Others prefer to leave the sheep in the field all year, depending on pastures to graze for their food and offering hay and grain when the snow gets too deep. Even though sheep have wool, they still need barns or treed windbreaks for shelter in the winter.
Most farms use elements of both systems.
Some flocks (groups of sheep) lamb in barns during the winter, while others lamb on pastures in the spring, depending on the facilities and goals of each farmer. Most ewes lambing in barns are put in “claiming pens” or “jugs” (individual pens) after they lamb (give birth) so they can bond with their newborn lambs. The ewe and lambs will stay in these pens fresh straw bedding for 1 to 3 days so the shepherd can give them special attention. To keep the lambs warm and dry, the shepherd may install a heat lamp.
The average farm flock size in Ontario is 84.8 sheep. Flock sizes range from two sheep on hobby farms to 1200 ewes with their lambs on farms where there could be two or three full time shepherds.
Modern shepherds use the most advanced husbandry practices in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Recommended Code of Practice, developed in 1984 by farmers, government, animal protection groups, researchers, and processors. Copies may be found at www.livestockwelfare.com.
Nutrition: What do Sheep Eat?
Sheep are ruminant herbivores, meaning that they eat plant matter and digest it in a series of four stomachs. When a sheep eats, it chews and swallows and the feed enters the first stomach, the rumen, where it is mixed with fluids containing bacteria and other microorganisms to help break down the cellulose fibres. The sheep will then “chew its cud”: regurgitate the food and re-chew it into smaller particles. The chewed cud is swallowed again and eventually passes into the second stomach, the reticulum, for further processing. Then it’s on to the third stomach, the omasum, which removes a lot of the moisture from the mixture. The fourth stomach is the abomasum, which, like the human stomach, is very acidic for the digestion of proteins.
The majority of a sheep’s diet is forages - pasture and hay that can include grasses, alfalfa, and clover. Sheep often graze on land that can’t be cultivated for human food production.
At certain times in the production cycle shepherds may also feed grains, such as corn, barley, oats, and roasted soybeans, which are mixed with supplemental vitamins and minerals as needed. Grain supplementation is an important part of a balanced diet for fast-growing lambs, ewes in late gestation (within weeks of giving birth), or ewes with high milk production.
A mature sheep will eat approximately 3 kg of hay and grass per day. Weaned lambs will eat about one kg of grain and one kg of hay or grass every day.
Sheep are native to arid regions. They are able to survive on a diet with less water intake than other livestock. For maximum production though, they do need access to a continuous supply of fresh drinking water. On average a mature sheep will drink between 1 and 2.5 gallons (3.8 - 9.5 L) of water per day except after lambing when they will require more fresh water in order to produce large quantities of milk for fast growing lambs.
About the Life Cycle of Sheep...
Most ewes (female sheep) are bred by natural mating to a ram (male sheep), but some special ewes are bred by artificial insemination, a procedure that allows shepherds to import the best genetics without the health risks of introducing a new ram into the flock. The age at which a ewe is first bred depends on the producers goals, objectives and genetics involved, but generally a ewe lamb should be at least 85 - 100 lbs at first breeding and should receive adequate nutrition until first lambing.
Sheep are seasonal breeders, meaning they breed most successfully when day length is getting shorter, from late August to January. After a gestation (pregnancy) of approximately five months, lambing will occur from mid-January to June.
Single lambs are most common but twin and triplet births are not uncommon. Some ewes have even given birth to 4 or 5 lambs. Birth weights range from 2 to 5 kg, depending on if the lamb comes as a single, twin, or triplet birth, the age of the ewe, her breed and her nutrition. Depending upon how the shepherd chooses to manage the flock, ewes may lamb (give birth) only once per year or up to 5 times in 3 years.
Some farmers hire specially trained ultrasound technicians to ultrasound ewes approximately 4 to 6 weeks before lambing. This is done to determine if the ewe is pregnant or not, and how many lambs each ewe is carrying. The pregnant ewes may be sorted into groups based on expected number of lambs and fed diets balanced specifically for their expected nutritional requirements.
Sheep are usually shorn in the spring to keep them cool for the summer. Pregnant ewes are shorn 2 to 6 weeks before they lamb so the lamb will be able to find a teat to suck on instead of sucking on wool.
Young lambs have their tails shortened to protect them from biting insects as well as to keep them clean and they are given vaccinations starting as newborns. The farmer will usually give each lamb an ear tag. Starting in 2004 all sheep will be required to have an approved identification tag to track sheep movements in case of a disease outbreak.
Until weaning, lambs may have access to their own special feed area called a “creep” to receive extra grain or lusher pasture. Ewes nurse their lambs from 6 to 10 weeks, until the lambs reach between 27 to 32 kg and are ready to be weaned from milk to eat solid feed and drink water.
After weaning, many growing lambs may be placed in specialized facilities called “feedlots” where they receive carefully balanced rations that allow them to grow quickly on less feed. Some farmers may opt to leave the lambs on pasture to grow.
Lambs are raised to different weights for different markets. The new crop market is typically 29 kg or less live weight and sold directly from the dam. Light lambs are preferred by a segment of the market and range from about 29kg to 38 kg. Heavy lambs range from 39 kg to 47 kg.
Sheep are considered full-grown at 1 year old, weighing between 70 and 125 kg.
Sheep raised to produce milk for the sheep cheese market are called dairy sheep. Lambs are removed from the ewe within 48 -60 hours after birth and raised artificially on a sheep milk replacer formula. The sheep are milked in dairy facilities that resemble milking parlours for cattle. There is a well-established dairy industry in France from which dairy equipment is imported for use in Canada. A sheep may give up to 2 litres of milk per day.
Breeds
There are many different production systems for sheep and for each unique production system, farmers select different kinds of sheep that will match their farming conditions. Some of the most popular breeds in Canada include: Suffolk, Dorset, and Arcott.
On some farms the whole flock is purebred (all the same breed) and the shepherd sells breeding stock to other shepherds to improve certain characteristics of their flocks. Other flocks raise crossbreds (mate rams of one breed with ewes of another breed) to produce offspring with the good traits from both breeds. Many new strains have been developed in Canada from cross breeding, such as Rideau, Canadian, and Outouais Arcotts, DLS, and OLIBS.
While the above breeds are best known for their meat, some farms concentrate on filling niche markets for wool using Lincoln, Cotswold, Romnov and Jacob bloodlines; dairy sheep may be selected for their milking ability from East Fresian and British Milksheep bloodlines.
For more information on breeds of sheep visit www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/
Off to Market
Sheep and market lambs are sent to abattoirs on trucks specifically set up for sheep. There are strict guidelines for transporting sheep, including the number of sheep or lambs of a certain size that can be safely loaded on a truck. For more information about transportation regulations visit http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/animalcare/transportation.html
Each animal is inspected at the processing plant. Sheep are handled and euthanized quickly and humanely by approved methods. Processing plants follow strict government guidelines for processing and handling animals and meat products to ensure animal welfare and food safety.
The marketing of sheep is not supply managed, meaning that the market forces of supply and demand will affect the price that the farmer receives.
For more information about sheep visit the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency at www.ontariosheep.org or for recipe ideas visit www.lambrecipes.ca
For more information contact:
Canadian Sheep Breeders Association
www.sheepbreeders.ca
Canadian Sheep Federation
www.cansheep.ca
Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency
130 Malcolm Road
Guelph, ON N1K 1B1
www.ontariosheep.org
Other useful websites:
www.bcsheep.com
www.albertasheep.com
www.ssba.org
www.mbsheep.ca
www.cepoq.com
www.sheepnovascotia.ns.ca