Reflections from the Ontario Sheep Farmers Convention

While the team has been busy with clients on both sides of the Tasman, I’ve been sunning myself in Ontario, Canada. Even though it was a work trip, it didn’t feel like work being chauffeur-driven around 14 farms. During the trip, I presented to the sheep research group at the University of Guelph, to the Large Flock Operators producer group and critiqued three sheep-breeding operations in a panel session, as well as making a separate presentation at the Ontario Sheep Farmers Convention.?

One of the great things about agriculture is it doesn’t seem to matter where you are in the world, when you are around farmers you feel comfortable, you feel at home. Despite big differences in production environments and production challenges, by the end of my time there, it kind of felt like home. Although I have to admit the constant dividing by 2.2 to convert pounds to kilograms and the six-month phase change to work out the equivalent time in Aus/NZ kept me on my toes. I think the familiar feeling is largely because of how welcoming and open the people were. Many people contributed to this, but I’d like to make a special mention of Erin Morgan and Anita O’Brien who made my trip a comfortable and enjoyable one. Anita played a key role in planning and coordinating my trip, including the producer panel, and Erin put her life on hold to drive me around Ontario to each of the farms and managed to build an NHL ice hockey game into the itinerary, which can now be ticked off the bucket list. There was lots of scoring, a fight and a home-town win – you can’t ask for a better combo than that. I also got to share the hockey experience with social media friends, Chris Moore and Lyndsey Smith (real friends now).

Thanks to a large population of cultural lamb and sheep eaters in Toronto, the industry has some real potential. Every kilogram of what is produced is consumed locally and demand outstrips supply, allowing for very good prices and solid demand throughout the year.?

The weather I struck was amazing, but everyone was keen to tell me that it wasn’t normal. By this time of year, they expect good frosts, cold days and some snow. Their winters are harsh and long, which has led to a lot of housing of sheep over the winter months, and in many cases all year round. There are a few grass-based farmers, particularly in Eastern Ontario, who run systems more similar to what we would normally see in New Zealand or the colder parts of Australia. The majority of systems incorporate a barn for at least some of the year and feed a combination of corn grain, corn silage, corn cob silage, dried distillers grain (yet another form of corn), soybean meal, pasture hay and pasture silage/baleage. Many of these confinement systems are mating ewe lambs/hoggets and are practising some type of accelerated lambing.?

There is pretty much every breed you can imagine (and the odd one you can’t) but the dominant breeds are Rideau Arcott (a Canadian-developed, highly-prolific composite) and Poll Dorset, with a range of combinations of these breeds. The Dorset is used more as a maternal than a terminal, which is quite different to how that breed is used in Aus/NZ. There is a national performance-recording system, GenOvis, which some breeders choose to use.?

Without many drench options - and significant resistance to the ones they have - gastrointestinal worms can be a major challenge in outdoor systems. Rotational grazing behind nets is part of the solution to managing worm larval pressure.?

The predators in Ontario make the fox of Australia look like a fluffy kitten. Coyotes cause most of the grief and are responsible for the majority of sheep predation. They will take all stock classes of sheep, similar to wild dogs in Australia. Wolves and bears are around, but not in sufficient numbers to be of concern in any of the places that I visited. I’m guessing that farmers further north might encounter more problems with these larger predators. Grazing outdoors is almost always associated with running a guard dog or two and sometimes many more.?

The target carcass weight is mostly around 25kg, with a cap of 27kg. Because of the intensive feeding in some of these systems, this lamb is often only 100 to 150 days old. None of the male lambs are castrated. This combination makes for a very different eating experience compared to eating New Zealand or Australian lamb - the meat is a lot paler, very tender, can be quite fatty and can also have a ram taint.?

Turning to our latest releases on The Hub, Head Shepherd podcast and neXtgen Agri YouTube channel, you'll find plenty to listen to, read and watch this fortnight.?

Our most recent Head Shepherd guests are both individuals with a huge passion for their respective fields:?

• Ben Simpson of OGA Creative emphasises the importance of strategy, storytelling and brand values in building and maintaining the global reputation of Australian agriculture.
• Bec Malseed, who manages AWI and RIST’s Lifetime Ewe Management course and is an Aussie rules central/field umpire in her spare time, is inspiring a new generation of women in the sport. She shares how healthy communication and being open to different perspectives translate from the sports field to life.

On The Hub, you’ll find the recording from our latest Hub LIVE along with two new articles:

• If you missed our Hub LIVE event this month, ‘Balancing the Merino breeding objective: valuing the good doers’ with John Young, the recording is well worth a watch for those interested in the future of the modern Merino.?
• This fortnight, Sophie has turned her attention to the issue of finding and retaining the right staff in a farming business. Cultivating commitment questions some of the common assumptions about what an employee might value and highlights how farm owners and managers can make their enterprise a more attractive place to work, now and into the future.
• Inspired by a mix of Darwin, The Hunger Games and my time in Ontario, Natural selection and livestock breeding explores whether GxE interactions are real or just evidence that we don’t yet know how to measure all of the trait interactions. As always, it will be great to hear your thoughts on this one.?

As part of our fibre goat extension work with AgriFutures Australia, we’ve released a case study video looking at Susie Paterson’s Angora goat operation in southern Queensland. It covers the different aspects of fibre goat production, including health and nutrition, infrastructure and animal selection.?

And as we head into the warmer months, in the southern hemisphere at least, it’s timely to revisit our podcast episode with Dr William van Wettere on the impact of heat stress in sheep during mating and pregnancy.

Onwards and upwards,

Ferg and the neXtgen team