GLENAVON, Sask. – Bleating lambs scamper around looking for their mothers while others nurse or snooze curled up to each other.
On the other side of the corral fence, ewes due any time rest and wait.
Lambing is in full swing in mid-March at Jeff and Janette Mish’s farm in southeastern Saskatchewan.
About 200 Katahdin lambs had arrived between March 2-20, including 30 sets of triplets, and more were still to come.
The couple and their children, daughters Courtney and Melissa and son Jordan, have been raising the meat sheep since 1998.
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Although neither Jeff nor Janette knew anything about raising sheep, Katahdins seemed like a perfect fit for a family moving back to the grain farm after 13 years in Regina.
The sheep don’t need to be sheared because they shed their winter coats. They also don’t need their tails docked and adapt well to different climatic conditions.
The Mishes started with 23 head and now have 130 ewes on the farm where Jeff grew up. They educated themselves by reading books, asking questions and using the internet.
The breed has proven to be profitable, prolific and easy to manage.
“They’re pretty hardy,” Jeff said.
Last year they averaged 2.25 live births per ewe. Few ewes need assistance and most have no trouble mothering.
“We don’t have any bottle babies,” said Janette, although a few had a temporary home in the basement during this winter’s unusually cold March.
The Mish children can easily handle the sheep. Each child has a herd and is responsible for chores.
Janette said the easy handling also makes it easier to bring in someone to look after the flock if the family needs to be away. All three children play hockey, which keeps them on the road a lot.
The entire family usually attends the Canadian Western Agribition, which offers one of the few Katahdin shows in Canada.
Janette described the first year at the show as a learning experience.
By the third year, the Mishes had reserve grand champion ram and ewe. They’ve shown the 2005 grand champion ewe, the grand champion ram and ewe in 2006 and 2007, and the grand champion ewe in 2008.
“We’ve been culling pretty hard,” Janette said of their flock improvement.
When Katahdins first became popular in Saskatchewan in the early 1990s, a lot of breeders kept everything, Jeff said, because the demand was there.
Now that the breed is well established, producers are more selective.
The number of breeders has shrunk, he said, but the remaining producers have bigger flocks.
Katahdin meat remains desirable for its mild taste and low cholesterol content compared to other meat.
A 1998 nutritional analysis of Saskatchewan-produced Katahdin found 44.4 milligrams of cholesterol per 100 gram serving, which is about 25 mg less than a serving of pork and about 30 mg less than other lamb.
The Mishes have no trouble selling their lambs to a buyer from Alberta, who takes them to a feedlot.
Lambs are weaned at three months and sold at 85 to 90 pounds for $1.20 to $1.30 per pound.
“We get paid on the spot,” Jeff said.
Before BSE closed borders in 2003, the family was shipping live animals to Mexico. That option still isn’t available and they are reluctant to consider embryo harvests or semen sales because the facilities that offer those services are too far away.
Janette said they could lamb almost year-round given the demand.
Until this year, they lambed twice a year, with the mature ewes giving birth earlier and the first-timers in May. They’ve also tried lambing three times in two years.
Lambing has to fit into the grain farm schedule, however. The Mishes seed about 2,000 acres to cereals, oilseeds and pulses and also grow their own feed for the winter.
The flock spends the summer on a quarter of pasture near home, often heading back to the corrals in the yard for the night. Coyotes have not been a problem, even though the pasture fence is electric rather than page wire.
A Great Pyrenees-Kuvasz cross also patrols.
The couple said the interest in raising Katahdins remains high. In the last two years they’ve seen more acreage owners consider the breed because they can run a decent-sized flock on a quarter section.
The Mishes are at the limit in terms of shelter and pen space but would consider expanding their operation.
Both volunteer on the Saskatchewan Katahdin Sheep Association board. Janette is vice-president and Jeff is a director. They are also involved with their rink board and in minor hockey.
