Our Sheep

I, Pam, was a member of Glen Ewen Mixed 4-H, and was in Sheep 4-H for 2 years. I never realized that would spark a great love much later in life.  

I keep all of the book work in line, and have a great love for genetics and learning. Daniel is the best "chore boy" anyone could ever have - he makes things happen and makes sure they get the best care and feed possible!

We’ve traveled all over Western Canada to meet and visit other producers and to find what works best for our family. We enjoy discussing what has worked for our farms, and would love to visit with you. We don’t sit back and rest on our laurels. We both work off of the farm, so we are always looking for ideas to make sure our flock is working for us. 

We were introduced to the Canadian Arcott breed at Agribition in 2018.

We believe in our breeding program and are happy to say that most everyone of our sheep has the late Colleen Sawyer (Sawyer C) genetics.  In 1991 Colleen received a Canadian Sheep Breeders Award recognizing her contribution to the purebred industry, she was also elected to the Agriculture Hall of Fame. Colleen was a huge contributor to the sheep industry as well as the Canadian Arcott breed, and we couldn't find more fitting genetics to base our flock on. 

Pol and Canon, our Ram's are off of AI'ed semen from Canadian Arc and Polycott - who are original breed foundation rams. Unfortunately we lost Canon in 2020. 

- We have a high health program working strongly with Ranchland Vet Services (Dr. Tyson Buyers) on vaccination, deworming, reproduction programs (including semen testing);

- We are members of Genovis;

- We scrapie genotype (RR, QR, QQ) through Genecheck;

- Our flock has been negative tested for Johnes and Maedi Visna

The Canadian Arcott was one of the three breeds developed at the Federal Government Agriculture Canada research station near Ottawa between 1970 and 1985 and released to Canadian farms in the late 1980's. Canadian Arcott's were the result of a cross breeding program that included Ile de France and Suffolk to produce a new breed with strong meat characteristics (see more information below). The mature sheep is medium sized, short and thick. The lambs are fast growing, meaty animals that finish well for either the light or heavy lamb market. They produce an excellent carcass with good meat to bone ratio. The ewes are easy lambers and require low to medium maintenance. They adapt well to either pasture or confinement management systems. The rams make excellent terminal sires to improve the meat characteristics of many other breeds.

120 - 150 kg Rams / Rams

85 - 115 kg Ewes / Sheep

180% Lamb / Ewe Percentage / Percentage of lambing

Soft, lustrous Fleece / Fleece quality  

3 - 3.5 kg Weight / Weight

8 - 10 cm Staple Length

25 - 33 Micron Count / Micron

This breed was a result of a crossbreeding program of Suffolk (37%), Ile de France (28%), Leicester (14%), North Country Cheviot (7%) and Rambouillet (6%); the remaining 8% was contributed from Shropshire, Lincoln, Southdown, Dorset, East Friesian, Finnsheep and Corriedale.