RED DEER – Using sheep to graze clearcut forestry blocks in British Columbia is a program with huge potential yet fraught with problems.
Dennis Loxton, a contractor from Prince George, B.C., has rented Alberta sheep for nine years.
When he began, he thought the British Columbia Forestry Grazing Program would grow larger every year. But he was wrong.
“There’s been a lot of mistakes made and it has done a lot of damage to the industry,” he told the Alberta sheep symposium meeting held here recently.
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While he enthusiastically supports using sheep as lawn mowers, others do not.
Poor sheep managers, government interference and reluctance within the forestry industry caused the program to shrink from a high of 50,000 grazing sheep to 23,000 last year.
Loxton says fly-by-night operators soured the program for many Albertans who provided sheep.
“Anything that has gone wrong has been with people. There is no problem with sheep,” he said.
Loxton concurs with complaints that sheep came off pasture in worse condition than when they left home. They were turned out on unsuitable pastures with shepherds who did not know what they were doing.
“Some of them should be in jail for what they have done to sheep out there,” he said.
Loxton, who was a tree planter for several years, said he saw plenty of potential for a friendly way to remove vegetation from clear cuts. The sheep eat everything but newly planted trees.
Loggers are required by law to replant clearcut areas. Young seedlings are often overcome by other vegetation, which many foresters prefer to kill with herbicides.
“They were spraying 100,000 hectares a year.”
He and his family built up a service with 13 trained shepherds. He takes out about 5,000 head per year with grazing flocks of 1,500 each.
“I believe the potential of this gives us access to an infinite amount of really fine, summer grazing.”
He rents most of the sheep from Alberta Hutterite colonies for $15 to $17 a head. The colony sheep are robust Rambouillet.
Once they are trucked into an area, a base camp is set up and shepherds and dogs move the flocks every few days. Six guard dogs per flock keep grizzly bears and wolves at bay. They have lost fewer than 10 sheep to predators in the last nine years.
Not allclearcuts in B.C. are suitable for grazing because terrain is too rough or plants are too tall for sheep to reach.
The available feed is 16 to 19 percent protein so when the flocks are properly managed, the sheep thrive.
Loxton does not have a firm contract for this summer and would be disappointed to see the program disappear. There is also potential in Alberta clearcuts but he has not been involved with the province.
In 2000, the Alberta Sheep and Wool Commission will take over the administration of the B.C. Forestry Grazing Program for Alberta participants.
