PICTURE BUTTE, Alta. – Stan Lundberg faces the wrath of an angry ewe every time he picks up one of his Targhee lambs.
He doesn’t mind its glowering and growling because that’s the kind of mothering he wants from his Targhees.
The breed was developed in Idaho in 1926 by high plains producers who wanted improved range sheep with better meat characteristics. By crossing the fine wool breeds Rambouillet and Lincoln with meat breeds, the Idaho producers came up with an animal that has three-quarters fine wool and one quarter coarse wool.
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Targhees are cream-colored animals with good muscling. Ewes range in size from 56 to 90 kilograms while the rams are 90 to 135 kg.
A sheep producer for 22 years, Lundberg switched to Targhee eight years ago. He has no regrets making the change, considering their good foraging ability, health and hardiness.
The Nanton, Alta., producer owns one of the few Targhee flocks in Canada. Recently he displayed some of them at the Southern Alberta Sheep Producers Association Sheepstakes in Picture Butte.
He figures it costs $30 to get a market lamb ready for slaughter, a low input expense for a large commercial producer.
The ewes lamb outdoors in May and the farm averages a 160 percent lamb crop.
Antibiotics are limited and no needles are used.
The ewes live on forage while the lambs are given grain to boost them along.
“I keep these sheep out in the open all the time,” he said.
“They are never in a corral.”
This hardy life on the range produces well-muscled lambs that exercise as they browse for food.
The Targhee produces both a high grade commercial carcass and fine wool that spinners like to handle.
“It’s not the highest quality wool, but it’s far from the lowest,” Lundberg said.
“It’s right in the middle.”
The Targhee produces abundant wool with fibre staples up to 3.5 inches long. It is fine wool that earns Lundberg money at a time when most fleeces garner less money than the cost of shearing.
“I do very well with the clip from these sheep.”
But producing wool isn’t their primary job.
The 400 ewes pay their way in the meat market, where Lundberg is able to sell everything he raises by working directly with high-end restaurants and wholesale markets.
He operates Porcupine Hills Meat in Nanton with his partner, sous chef Gary Weiss. They sell wholesale and retail and are planning to open a meat shop in an upscale Calgary mall.
Lundberg believes in the lamb industry. He is disappointed to see Canada import half of its lamb meat because it does not produce enough.
The problem starts at the farmgate.
“It’s one of those things if you don’t have the sheep to sell you can’t sell them, but you can’t get a market unless you have the sheep to sell.”
He said the sheep industry should be doing better than it is because it takes less labor and money to raise sheep than it does cattle.
Inconsistent carcasses are another problem, with carcasses coming in all shapes and sizes. This is the result of indiscriminate crossbreeding and small flocks that are run as sideline businesses.
As well, quality doesn’t play a large role in determining price.
“We need to put uniformity of quality back into commercial production,” said Lundberg.
“If we don’t, we won’t have an industry.”
