“It’s a lot of marginal land, high clay soil, so we have a lot of opportunity to lease pasture cheaply,” said Bonham-Carter, who rents approximately 800 acres on the island. “As long as we’re willing to put in the work to fence everything up and get a sheep out there.”

They lamb out 1,200 ewes in a low-input operation by synchronizing lambing with grass growth, using electric fencing systems, a Prattley mobile handling system, and robust New Zealand Coopworth genetics to produce “easy-care ewes” that flourish in harsh winters and dry summers.

The Prattley mobile handling system enables a single person to handle, sort, dock, wean, drench, and vaccinate on pasture without needing additional labour.

“It doesn’t matter if you use it four kilometres away from home or 100 yards from the barn, we can yard them and sort them and drench them,” she said. “We get a lot of use out of it, and it opens up a lot of grazing opportunities we wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

Initially, the flock was a mix of half Coopworth, a quarter Border Cheviot and Romanov. It is now transitioning to 100 per cent Coopworth to take advantage of the breed’s forgeability, fertility, natural parasite resistance, easy lambing, and good pasture lamb percentage traits.

“Worm resistance is something that we’re really interested in, because it means less drenching, and hopefully we can get onto that feed a little sooner,” she explained. “We still have to manage carefully, but it’s just another tool in the toolkit.”

Bonham-Carter mentioned that the Nikau Coopworth genetics promote strong maternal traits and reliable twin births, which is preferable since triplets often struggle in pasture systems and are more vulnerable to parasites and predators. Besides genetics, Bonham-Carter said they have added cattle into the grazing system to reduce parasite loads and provide fresh feed for lambs after weaning.

They are looking to incorporate some terminal sires to add diversity to the lambs and recently purchased a few Texel sheep from Bill McCutcheon, a producer and lamb merchandiser for Ontario Lamb Marketing Inc.

Footflats Farm maintains a small flock of purebred, non-registered Border Cheviots, using the rams to breed first-time-lambing ewes, which produce smaller lambs with good birth vigour. The Border Cheviot lambs develop into small, well-muscled carcasses that are well-suited for ethnic markets, with Footflats Farm focusing on the light lamb market from December to February.

“We target the light lamb market. So, lambs at about 70 pounds is what we go for,” she explained. “They are a medium-sized sheep. They’re certainly not a large sheep, which is great for feed conversion.”

The award was sponsored by DLF, the Ontario Forage Council, and the Ontario Sheep Farmers.

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Especially when your livestock’s motto is “don’t fence me in.”

Why it matters: Many livestock producers are seeking long-term fencing solutions that fit their operations.

Two distinct styles of mobile fencing were on display during the Ontario Sheep Field Day in Orono this summer: Rappa’s ATV four-strand system out of the United Kingdom and Gallagher’s SmartFence.

Lyndsey Smith and Chris Moore who operate Shady Creek Lamb Co. near Kinburn, are Rappa’s Eastern Canadian dealers and have been using the ATV system this summer for their sheep, but it also works with cattle.

They’ve tested various fencing options, including reels and net fencing over the past eight years for solar site vegetation control and cover crop grazing.

“We use a lot of net fencing, which is very labour intensive,” said Smith. “We lambed about 500 ewes this year, and we are managing about 600 acres of solar. We also graze cover crops into the fall.”

The Rappa system features an all-weather post holder in front of the handlebars for easy access, a front-mounted end/corner post and sledgehammer rack, and a rear-mounted ATV wheel-driven winder/unwinder system that works well with solar energizers.

Smith said the Rappa system is fast, versatile, offers substantial labour savings, decreases fatigue, and speeds up moving fences and animals.

“(We can) quickly set a perimeter fence that will have great power on it, and it’ll be done in one day,” she explained. “We’re not going back and fencing every two or three days.”

It also enables producers to fence potential grazing lands previously considered inaccessible due to fencing constraints.

“We think this will save a lot of steps and a lot of time, and hopefully put more money in your pocket,” said Moore. “That allows you to run more animals with less effort and have more time to do the best job possible for your animal’s health.”

James Clark, Gallagher Animal Management’s Ontario territory manager, rolled out the SmartFence, an all-in-one, plug-and-play fencing system that features four strands of polywire and 10 pre-installed posts, totalling 328 feet in length.

“The only thing you have to put on is the handle so you can have a fence in five minutes,” he said. “Every second post has a metal pin and tent-peg style rope with it so you can create corners.”

The posts are stored upright, in a quiver-style, attached to a friction brake and winder that tightens the polywire once some or all posts are installed. Clark said the system only pulls in loose strands without over-tightening the rest.

Powered by a solar energizer or connected to an existing main fence, the SmartFence can be expanded using unlimited unit additions, unlike net fencing, he said.

“You just use two alligator clips, the reel connectors, and that’s how you connect them all,” Clark explained, emphasizing that any shape for the enclosure is possible.

“Everyone’s situation is different. This is one tool in a toolbox that could work for you.”

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For example, iLivestock’s cattle and sheep farm management system will be part of the Weber Farm Services booth.

“Full farm management software is the core of iLivestock,” explained Georgia Foster, iLivestock’s international account manager, during the recent Ontario Sheep Field Day. “We’ve built an ecosystem of hardware around the software to complement it and to capture that data and easily access it.”

iLivestock is a simple, download-and-go software with third-party system integration options and/or a complete hardware-software ecosystem, enabling data transfer to a smartphone or tablet.

The Scottish ag-tech includes a compact eTagReader, with a detection range of up to 38 centimetres, eWeigh, and eWeighbar. The technology integrates seamlessly with existing livestock handling infrastructure, and is offered at an introductory price of $3,200.

“We’re doing a deal at the moment where, if you buy hardware, so either our eTagReader, eWeigh or our (600 mm) eWeighbars, we’ll give you six months free livestock software just to use it, understand it,” said Foster.

A one-year flat-rate subscription for unlimited animals and all features costs 300 GBP in the United Kingdom (C$550), and the company has yet to announce a price for Canada.

Foster said the program facilitates quick weigh session management, including weighing, recording and exporting livestock data, as well as accessing historical data, breed tracking, medication/vaccination records and animal movement for traceability, even without internet.

Foster described the system as a “virtual medicine cabinet,” where producers can select whether the treatment is for an individual or an animal grouping, record the dosage, and specify whether it is a single treatment or a course.

“It would automatically populate your withdrawal period based on the medication that you’ve chosen,” she said. “Then that information will be stored against every individual animal in that group.”

The breeding component of the software has garnered significant interest from Canadian producers, she said, offering the ability to track breeding type, birthing difficulty, recovery, mastitis incidents and provide detailed traceability.

“It’s people who see the value in the data. They’re already tracing it through paper, or something like that, and they’re looking to advance,” she added, noting it also supports individual log-ins for multi-staff operations.

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That was the message to participants of a fecal egg count workshop hosted by the Ontario Sheep Farmers last month in Lindsay.

Why it matters: Small-ruminant worm drug resistance remains a concern in Canada, especially with no new treatments on the horizon.

Dr. Brad DeWolf, a veterinarian, and Victoria Allcock, a master’s student at the University of Guelph, are researching parasite control in small ruminants. They led 12 sheep and goat producers through the hands-on workshop, covering Modified McMaster fecal egg count (FEC) training, parasite identification and tools essential for reducing parasite loads, slowing resistance and preserving dewormer effectiveness.

“There’s not going to be a magic bullet,” said DeWolf, adding long-term sustainable parasite management requires a combination of strategies, including FECs to maximize dewormer benefit and slow resistance.

The workshop focused on identifying two major parasite types in sheep and goats:

• Gastrointestinal nematodes (often called GINs), such as Haemonchus (barber pole worm) and Trichostrongylus, which live in the digestive system and cause disease; and
• Coccidia, typically affecting lambs, which leads to diarrhea and impaired growth performance.

“It’s no surprise parasites are costing every sheep producer money to some degree,” DeWolf said, whether that’s due to drug costs for deworming or animal deaths.

While Canada hasn’t reached the dewormer resistance levels encountered in New Zealand, DeWolf noted some resistance is already present, making selective and targeted treatment critical.

Timing is crucial, as worm development and shedding fluctuate with lambing, pasture conditions, farm practices and seasonal reductions in egg production, which can affect FEC accuracy.

Worms have a chance to build resistance with every dewormer application and under dosing increases that opportunity, DeWolf explained.

“We would much rather err on the side of overdosing slightly than under dosing,” he said. “People tend to under dose slightly, and that’s a way to promote resistance. Making sure you have an accurate idea of what animals are weighing is absolutely essential.”

He emphasized that many farms already face low-level resistance, and monitoring FEC of individual animals showing parasite stress, rather than pool testing, helps identify high-burden animals, leading to more effective treatment decisions.

Farmer take-aways

New to the industry, Lindsey Wensink raises 40 ewes in the Reaboro area said the workshop filled knowledge gaps and added new tools to their management practices.

“We encountered a lot of different parasites in the last two years, and we’ve had two bouts of coccidiosis,” Wensink said, adding they use rotational grazing to limit worm load.

“So, it’s self-education, basically just being able to identify and treat as needed, rather than treating as a whole.”

Katy Touchette made the trek from Prince Edward County, where she works on a 2,000-head sheep operation.

“I wanted to learn how to do it and be able to do it myself to have a better grip on what’s going on in the flock, parasite-wise,” said Touchette. “And at the same time, saving a few bucks from the vet.”

With flock-wide FECs costing $90, learning to test individuals and the flock accurately can reduce unnecessary treatment and lower costs. Touchette said having practical training early in the grazing season will help the operation avoid over-treatment and confirm worm load when symptoms such as poor body condition arise.

“I’m going to walk away with much knowledge and a new ability to be more efficient in my work,” she said. “It’s something that we already do, but if we can do it ourselves, it might be just done quickly and more often.”

Tammy Nurse of Campbellcroft manages a 60-head Rideau flock in a barn and open yard, where she feeds hay, forgoing pasturing altogether. With this setup, she said she’s only needed to worm two sheep in 13 years.

“Once you pasture, you end up with a huge problem with worms,” Nurse said. “(Parasites are) one of the most expensive things that’s hard on a sheep flock, and especially hard on your bottom line.”

She advocates for breeding worm-resistant sheep instead of relying solely on dewormers.

“A 100 years ago, sheep were resistant, because if they weren’t, they died,” she explained. “(My ram) was subjected to heavy worm loads, and he was tested to have low amounts of them. Even though he was exposed to them, they didn’t take.”

To address coccidia in lambs, she uses Toltrazuril as a preventative. Although it doesn’t eliminate the coccidia parasites, it slows their growth, giving lambs time to build immunity and reduce scours-related dehydration — a key concern in barns where disinfecting wooden surfaces is difficult.

Treat your dogs

Anita O’Brien, OSF’s on-farm program lead, explained that Taenia ovis, a tapeworm found in farm dogs, guardian dogs or visiting dogs is not detectable through small ruminant FEC tests. The parasite causes “sheep measles,” which is on the rise and can lead to carcass condemnation.

Dogs contract the parasite by eating raw meat infected with “sheep measles” cysts. They then shed tapeworm eggs onto grass, which sheep ingest while grazing. The parasite moves into the muscle, forming cysts that result in meat being condemned.

“We recommend getting a dog worming program that targets tapeworms,” said O’Brien. “And any dogs that are coming to the farm, we need to be confident that they are not carrying this tapeworm and leaving it behind.”

The OSF emphasized that deadstock must be dealt with promptly to prevent scavenging by dogs or wildlife, which can spread or restart infection cycles.

Upcoming FEC workshops will be held in Walkerton and Ilderton this July. More information is available at www.ontariosheep.org.

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Why it matters: The sheep farming industry is prime for growth as demand outstrips supply.

Under the monikers of Circle R Livestock Ltd. and Revolution Wool Company, the couple have expanded their operation to more than 800 ewes, producing nearly 2,000 lambs per year.

Their efforts have not gone unrecognized, with the couple recently being named Ontario’s Outstanding Young Farmers for 2025. The pair will go on to represent Ontario in Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers competition come November in Toronto.

Away from the spotlight, the pair are focused on continuing to grow their farm operation. Both were raised on farms, with Romy growing up on a dairy farm before completing a degree in agricultural science at the University of Guelph. Ryan, meanwhile, grew up on a mixed farm and completed an agricultural certificate at Vermilion College.

Easy scalability was one of the first things that attracted them to sheep farming when they set out on their own. The couple chose to raise purebred Dorset ewes, Dorset Rideau crosses, and maternal crosses for strong maternal lines. Additionally, the Dorset breed lambs year-round, which allows for year-round income.

Ryan noted that the sheep industry as a whole is prime for growth, with immigration spurring on demand for lamb and goat meat. Many new Canadians from regions like the Middle East and India have pushed demand for beef down and created new demand for alternative meats.

“Ontario is only meeting 20 per cent of supply demand for lamb, and Canada as a whole is only 40 per cent. This leaves us with a lot of potential,” said Ryan, adding that a recent strong shift to buying Canadian products will only continue to reinforce this growth. He said that presently, the farm is unaffected by recent tariffs on agricultural products imposed by United States President Donald Trump. He added, however, that this may change on inputs in time.

The couple added that they are also planning for succession, as their three children, Cameron, Emerson, and Adalyn take on more duties around the farm. Romy said that the ability to easily scale up and scale down with sheep farming gives them the flexibility to plan for the future.

The pair started their farm operation off with 25 head of sheep, which grew into 50. The couple also raised pigs, beef cattle, and chickens; however, sheep farming quickly became their main passion. A major barn renovation in 2010 pushed them to make the decision to move away from other livestock and transition over to sheep entirely.

“Back then the joke was one day we would have 1,000 sheep, and here we are,” said Romy.

Renovating the existing barn allowed them to increase their flock to 200. The addition of a new facility in 2018 allowed them to grow to their current size.

Romy said they are looking to the future with both themselves and their children in mind.

“It’s easy for the kids to take over in the future. But right now we are comfortable where it is at,” she said, adding the focus right now is on fine-tuning the sheep operation.

“Our goal is to raise fast-growing meat lambs on an accelerated year-round system so we can pull in that income year-round. We are a little limited in space in the barns now; we only have so much land, and we have to push the number of lambs each ewe produces and how many times they can produce lambs each year.”

During the renovation process, Ryan said the couple had to do some serious planning for the future as they embarked in a new direction. “We saw huge potential, so it was a matter of believing in ourselves and proving a lot of our doubters wrong that we could do this.”

Romy said it was always the couple’s dream to grow the farm so they could both work full-time from home. She said this meant investing both in the farm and in themselves personally and professionally through networking.

Romy is also busily expanding her wool business, which operates on the farm. Wool that is sheared on the farm is sent to mills across Canada and the U.S. to be processed before it is sent back for manufacturing. The business runs an ecommerce store featuring yarn, blankets, batting, and felt.

Demand was so high that Romy had to send wool for production to industrial mills to scale up efficiently. She noted that the recent tariff threats have slowed U.S. business, but her Canadian business remains strong.

“I’m a fairly artistic and crafty person, so it’s been a nice avenue for me to use that creative side. It started with a bit of yarn, and it turned into blankets and bedding, and it’s been a really great way to use what we are already producing and add value to that,” she said.

Ryan noted that the wool business grew out of the couple shearing their sheep several times a year. He added that even though running a commercial wool business is not viable at the scale of their operation, they have exceptional capacity to do so on-farm.

“I think it’s really important that as Canadian producers, we use this amazing natural material that is already being grown on the farm. Our customers and farmers need natural, sustainable materials to help with our carbon footprint and our effect on the world. As farmers, we try to do everything we can to leave the world in a better place and keep the soil healthy and our animals healthy, and using wool is just one of those things that we can do too.”

To learn more about Circle R Livestock and Revolution Wool in this video: 

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The pair were recognized at the regional event held at the Gathering House, Thatcher Farms, on April 1 with sponsors and alumni in attendance. The Schills will go on to represent Ontario at Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers competition in November 2025 in Toronto.

Circle R Livestock Ltd raises about 700 ewes consisting of purebred Dorset ewes, Dorset Rideau crosses, and maternal crosses for strong maternal lines. The Dorset breed is key to lambs being born year-round, which spreads out the workload and helps with a steady income.

Once the sheep are sheared, the Schill’s Revolution Wool Company works with Canadian mills and manufacturers to create a variety of wool textiles and goods.

According to a press release, the main pillar of the farm is the soil. The Schills said that nourishing and managing that valuable resource is key to supporting the rest of the farm. The land is managed in an environmentally sustainable way using no-till, minimum till, crop rotations, manure, and fertilizer. Romy and Ryan grow most of the feed that their animals eat. The feed is tested, and rations are balanced based on the stage of production a sheep is in for optimal health and production. Crops grown include hay and grass forages, corn, wheat, and barley.

Romy grew up on a dairy farm before completing a degree in agricultural science at the University of Guelph. Ryan grew up on a mixed farm and went to school for an agricultural certificate at Vermilion College. This education and variety of knowledge have helped them to grow, manage, and evolve the sheep farm.

Amy Cronin, Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmer Program (COYF) president said “The 2025 Outstanding Young Farmers, Ryan and Romy Schill, exemplify the excellence that COYF stands for. Their sheep and wool operation is a story of hard work and perseverance, innovation, family involvement, and diversifying to meet the desires of consumers both now and into the future.”

About The OYF Program

The Outstanding Young Farmers Program is open to participants aged 18 to 39 years old, whose major source of income comes from agricultural sources. Participants are selected from seven regions in Canada, and two national winners are chosen each year. The program is sponsored nationally by Agriculture Canada, CIBC, John Deere, Bayer, Sollio Agriculture, Meridian Manufacturing, and CN, with media sponsors Glacier FarmMedia and WS and video sponsor Bamboo Shoots. It is supported nationally by BDO.

Canada’s Outstanding Young Farmers of 2025 will be chosen during the national competition that will be held in Toronto from November 27 to 30, 2025.

For more information, visit www.oyfcanada.com.

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The GenOvis awards recognize a breeder’s selection process using a combination of data collection and the application of recommendations by a geneticist to improve genetic progress between Aug. 1 and July 31 each year.

Earl Brubacher of Brubacher Ovine won the commercial group with Todd Payne, Asphodel Sheep Co. and Mark and Betty Bearinger, Fare Vewe Acres, taking second and third, respectively.

Bill and Lynne Duffield of Codon Suffolks took the top spot for the terminal category with Dwayne Bazinet and Colleen Acres of Maple Meadow Farms, in second, with Ted and Joanne Skinner, of Cedar Creek Charollais awarded third.

The maternal breed was awarded to Laura Mosley of Rising Oak Dorsets, with Kim Schneider, 4s Maple Lane Farm, placing second and Century Lane Farm’s Robert and Shirley Graves and Sons taking third.

Lamb Lady Farm’s Shelagh Finn took first in prolific breed, with second and third place awarded to Tulach Ard Farm’s Sean McKenzie and Dwayne Bazinet and Colleen Acres of Maple Meadow Farms, respectively.

Wayne Kreklewich of Craigmore Farm was the hybridizer category winner and the only farm that qualified.

Jessalyn Hendriks, an agricultural business student at Fanshawe College, received the $500 Ontario Sheep Farmer’s undergraduate scholarship for first or second-year post-secondary students under 21.

Master Shepherd’s course graduates Angela Simpson and Heather Kerr, from the 2020 cohort, and Ontario’s Ryan Klapwyk, James Buckley, Katie Stewart, Joe Hunter, Cynthia Kretschmann, Kristie McAinsh, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island’s Curtis Penny from the 2022 cohort were also recognized.

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“It is a complex decision; there is a lot of moving parts. A lot of things that are different for each farm and each individual,” said panelist Delma Kennedy, sheep specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA).

Kennedy was joined by sheep producers Drew Tyler and Ben Bartley, who shared their insight into how an annual or accelerated breeding program fits into their farm operations.

Why it matters: Choosing a breeding system requires sheep producers consider their operation’s labour, profits, land and building access.

Tyler said the approach shouldn’t be one system versus another but rather the importance of figuring out where you want to be and committing to that. He runs a cash-crop livestock operation with 110 Rideau ewes and terminal Suffolk rams on a confinement-grazing hybrid system, lambing four times a year.

“You need to figure out where you want to be. Plow horses don’t win derbies, and thoroughbreds don’t pull plows, but they both have their uses.”

Tyler is a consultant with EastGen and a full-time dad in addition to being a cash crop and sheep farmer, so time and labour demands influence his management decisions.

“The goal is to put as many pounds of lamb on a truck as possible, as efficiently as possible,” he said.

“Most of what my sheep eat throughout the year is oat cover crop. We do grow some hay. If I need it, I feed it. If I don’t, I sell it as a cash crop.”

When necessary, he rolls out a bale in the H-bunk every two days, supplementing with corn and soybean meal, and provides winter corn stalk grazing when the ground is fit.

Tyler uses four-day staggered controlled intravaginal drug releases (CIDRs) for out-of-season breeding and rams for in-season, lambing last in December and restarting in March because “frozen lambs don’t make much money.”

“I can handle five ewes lambing at once and still get to work on time and meet my other commitments.

“CIDRs give me the luxury of staggering out a group over about two weeks.”

Additionally, staggered CIDRs ensure ewes in the best condition are first, and skinnier ewes have an extra three weeks for conditioning.

“If nutrition isn’t bang on when they’re lactating, and you go to breed them back, the next time, that’s what makes or breaks my conception rate,” Tyler explained, adding he buys replacements from reputable producers because it’s less expensive than raising them.

Prolific ewes with an extended natural season are ideal for accelerated systems because high conception and weaning rates drive profit to cover infrastructure costs, said Kennedy.

“(Track those) rates to make sure you’re actually doing better than an annual system,” she advised. “If you’re going to put all this effort in, you have to make sure you’re actually selling more lambs in the long run, and it’s working out for you.”

Kennedy added annual producers should have trouble-free operations before switching to an accelerated program because lambing and mortality issues will only multiply.

Knowing which breed fits your system best is a game-changer, Bartley added, admitting it took a few tries to find a producer running a similar system to purchase ewes from.

Seven years ago, Bartley added 10 outdoor sheep to his swine operation near Clifford. This May, he’ll lamb 1,400 ewes from a Dorset and North Country Cheviot mixed flock.

“Trying to handle a mob of 1,000 is quite a bit different than 500,” Bartley laughed. “We realized we had to make some changes.”

Despite the meteoric flock expansion, Bartley’s year-round outside system focuses on low input, whether it’s time investment, infrastructure costs near zero, or feed. He rotationally grazes 170 acres of permanent pasture and 60 acres of marginal, forest and swamp land, cover crops, a mobile sort yard, fencing and dogs for flock predation protection.

“Our double-deck straight truck would probably get used more than a tractor on our farm just hauling sheep around,” Bartley laughed.

He pulled sheep off the pasture on Jan. 4 and estimates from January to April, it costs $45/head in stored feed. From May to August, it’s $32/head, factoring in potential loss of land rent profit and September to December cover crops cost of $12/head.

Parasites, not predation, is Bartley’s largest sheep health concern, and he uses a combination of dewormers in tandem with a three-day maximum pasture rotation with 30 to 40 days rest in between.

“The nice thing is what’s good for preventing parasites is also beneficial for grass growth,” he said, adding parasite levels creep up even with four passes a year, but cover crops are a game-changer.

After weaning in September, ewes move to 450 acres of knee-high oat cover crops and corn stalks to graze, while lambs are sent to a custom lamb feeder with an 800-lamb capacity barn to get Christmas market-ready.

Bartley uses solar power, sort wagons, and net fencing to construct 15-to-20-acre cover crop paddocks that feed 1,200 ewes at two-and-a-half to five acres/day for five days depending on cover crop quality, costing him approximately $ .06 to $0.16 a head/day.

Tyler said direct marketing taught him more pounds pay, fat lambs are expensive, and his Texels were fat.

“Which is why I switched to Suffolk,” he explained. “Texels would hit 100 pounds and then run outta gas, and ewes just got fat. Suffolk ram lamb Rideau crosses can go to 130 pounds and not quit.”

With a production goal of 2.6 or 2.7 lambs per ewe per year, Tyler’s annual objective is 40,000 pounds of lamb per 100 ewes and an average shipping weight of 115 pounds.

“My goal is to put uniform groups of blackface lambs through the sales barn every week or every other week,” he said. “(If packers are) making money and happy, they’ll come back and buy more uniform groups — lambs that all look the same, lambs that kill the same — everybody wins.”

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Statistics Canada on Monday reported the first year-over-year increase in the size of the country’s cattle herd as of July 1 in about four years, at 12.3 million head, up 0.2 per cent from July 1, 2020.

Canada’s hog herd, meanwhile, was up one per cent over the same period, at 14.2 million hogs, while the sheep breeding herd reached 622,300 head, also up one per cent.

StatsCan pointed out that the livestock sector “continued to cope with challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic,” including temporary closures of packing plants to control outbreaks, as well as labour disputes, “particularly in the pork processing sector.”

Beef and dairy cattle inventories rose mainly on a 0.8 per cent increase to three million head in Eastern Canada, while slipping 0.1 per cent to 9.3 million head in the West. Alberta’s share of the Canadian herd remained largest at 39.6 per cent of the total, followed by Saskatchewan (21.9 per cent) and Ontario (13.1 per cent).

Cattle producers held 0.1 per cent less breeding stock compared with the same date in 2020, mainly on the number of beef cows dropping 1.7 per cent to 3.6 million head.

Inventory of calves on July 1 grew 1.4 per cent, to 4.1 million head, as births were up and imports of live calves from January to June “more than doubled year over year to meet increased demand from feedlots in Western Canada.”

On the other hand, Canada’s international exports of cattle and calves from January to June were down by 25.8 per cent year over year, to 274,300 head, reaching their lowest level since the BSE crisis of 2003-05 — mainly on drought conditions and reduced herds in the U.S., limiting that country’s need for imports.

In hogs, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba held the largest inventories among the provinces on July 1, with Quebec alone at 4.4 million head, about a third of the national total.

Total hog slaughter was down 1.2 per cent over the July-to-July period, at 11.1 million head, mainly on “labour issues and lower export demand for pork,” StatsCan said, although the slaughter in the first half of 2021 came in 2.6 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels for the same period in 2019.

Canada exported 3.3 million live hogs in the first half of 2021, up 28.4 per cent, from the same period in 2020, mainly out of Ontario — up 93.3 per cent at 955,400 head — on “processing disruptions” that redirected the flow of hogs destined for slaughter south to the U.S., rather than east to Quebec.

Ontario and Quebec combined held over half of Canada’s sheep and lambs on July 1. The number of market lambs rose 4.9 per cent year over year to 432,800 head, while lamb slaughter fell 1.5 per cent year over year to 296,100 head.

International exports fell 88.6 per cent year over year, to 800 head, 80.4 per cent below the previous 10-year average from January to June, on “limited domestic supplies and strong prices.” International imports of live animals for the period reached 12,000 head, which StatsCan noted was the highest level for the first-half period since 2010. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

Table: Canada’s total cattle inventories, July 1, 2020 and 2021, in thousands of head. Source: Statistics Canada.

Table: Canada’s total hog inventories, July 1, 2020 and 2021, in thousands of head. Source; Statistics Canada.

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StatsCan on Monday reported 11.2 million cattle on Canadian farms at Jan, 1, 2021 — down one per cent from the year-earlier date and 25.3 per cent off the herd’s last peak at Jan. 1, 2005. The herd was spread across 71,330 farms, down 1.8 per cent from Jan. 1, 2020.

The overall cattle count takes into account a 1.7 decrease in the herd in Western Canada, to 8.2 million head, as well as a 0.9 per cent increase in the East, to 2.9 million head.

The calf count on Jan. 1 was down 1.1 per cent on the year at 3.7 million head, including a 3.5 per cent drop in births over the July-to-December period compared to the same stretch in 2019. Feeder heifers were down 4.5 per cent and steers 4.2 per cent on the year.

Total slaughter of cattle and calves from July through December 2020 was up 0.6 per cent from the same stretch in 2019. In 2020, StatsCan said, “processing plants adapted their operations to increase processing capacity and reduce existing backlogs.”

The cattle slaughter pace in 2020 ran notably higher during the summer months, which “typically experience seasonal slowdowns.”

Canada’s exports of cattle and calves, at 303,000 head, were down two per cent in the latter half of 2020 compared to the year-earlier period, as U.S. processing plants also ran up against backlogs of slaughter cattle due to COVID-19.

StatsCan said the Canadian dairy herd has remained “fairly stable” since the start of 2018, sitting at 1.4 million cows and heifers as of Jan. 1, 2021.

Hogs

As of Jan. 1 this year, Canada’s hog herd was reported at 14 million head, up 0.4 per cent from Jan. 1, 2020 and 11.2 per cent from a decade earlier, StatsCan said. The herd was spread across 7,575 farms, down 0.8 per cent.

Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba had the largest hog inventories as of Jan. 1 with Quebec at 4.3 million, Ontario at 3.7 million and Manitoba at 3.3 million.

Canadian farms reported 1.2 million sows and gilts, up one per cent on the year, while the number of boars remained “virtually unchanged,” StatsCan said.

Slaughter over the July-to-December period of 2020, at 11.5 million head, was up 4.2 per cent on the year, reaching its highest level since Jan. 1, 2005. Exports during that period ran at 2.8 million hogs, up 10.1 per cent from the year-earlier period, on demand from the U.S. for weaner pigs and higher export demand for pork, particularly from China.

Sheep

Flocks of sheep and lambs in Canada as of Jan. 1 this year were at their lowest inventory levels since Jan. 1, 1999, StatsCan said. At 780,200 head, the sheep herd was down two per cent from the same point in 2020.

The sheep breeding herd fell one per cent year-over-year to 580,800 head, mainly on reductions in the number of ewes and rams. The number of market lambs fell 4.8 per cent over 2020, to 199,400 head, while lamb slaughter rose 2.6 per cent, to 336,200 head.

Exports of sheep and lambs fell to 3,100 head during 2020, while imports of live animals totalled 8,400 head, the highest level for the Jan. 1 date since 2015, StatsCan said. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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