There are only enough sheep in Canada to supply 47 percent of the lamb consumed in the country, so increasing the flock is the industry’s number one priority in 2011 and beyond, said Gordon Schroeder, a sheep producer near Watrous, Sask.
During the 2000s, the number of sheep and lambs on Canadian farms fell nearly 20 percent, dropping from 1.24 million in July 2004, based on Statistics Canada data, to 1.04 head in July of 2010.
On the Prairies, sheep numbers have followed the national trend downward.
Manitoba had 82,000 sheep and lambs in July 2004 but only 63,000 in 2010. There were 160,000 sheep and lambs in Saskatchewan in July 2004. By July 2010, there were 114,000. In Alberta, there were 248,000 in July 2004 and 181,000 in 2010.
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While animal numbers were falling in the 2000s, demand for lamb climbed, thanks to Canada’s changing demographics. More immigrants with a cultural affinity for lamb now live in Toronto, Montreal and other large cities in Canada.
The good news for sheep producers is that high demand and low supply equal high prices.
“We were selling lambs anywhere from $1.47 to $1.71 (per pound) live weight last week,” Schroeder said just before Christmas. “I’ve been raising lambs for 27 years and we’ve never seen those kind of prices.”
But the bad news is that declining sheep numbers threaten the long-term health of the industry.
“Part of the difficulty we’re experiencing is because the supply has continually shrunk over time, we have already seen some deterioration in terms of the infrastructure that supports the industry,” said Barbara Caswell, the Canadian Sheep Federation’s on-farm food safety coordinator.
Caswell said such infrastructure includes processing facilities and abattoirs.
In an effort to attract newcomers to the industry, Schroeder, who is also the Saskatchewan Sheep Development Board’s executive director, attends as many meetings as possible to spread the good word about raising sheep.
Schroeder directs his sales pitch primarily at folks already in the livestock business.
“We’ve focused quite a bit on the cattle industry. We’re not saying get out of the cattle business, but take a look at adding sheep to your operation.”
His pitch includes the synergy of having sheep and cattle together on the landscape.
“There are some real benefits to that…. Noxious weed control, like leafy spurge … sheep do very well on that.”
Despite his efforts and the high prices for lamb, Schroeder knows it’s a tough sell to convince beef producers to raise sheep because they see themselves as cattlemen and not shepherds.
“What we always say in the sheep industry is the image isn’t as romantic as a cowboy riding off into the sunset,” Schroeder said. “It’s seen as kind of a sideline. It’s just something you do if you have an acreage. But perception is changing slowly because we do have lots of operations now that have 1,000 ewes and up.”
In 2009, the Alberta Lamb Producers initiated an advertising campaign to raise the profile of the sheep producer and increase the number of people and animals in the industry.
The communication effort may have made a difference, as the total number of sheep and lambs in Alberta went up 2.3 percent from 2009 to 2010, the first increase after many years of decline.
In Manitoba, however, sheep numbers continue to drop, said Lucien Lesage, a producer near Notre Dame, Man. The province has lost 11 percent of its ewe flock in the last six years.
More help is needed regarding predation because several producers have quit raising sheep because they got tired of battling coyotes and wolves.
If the provincial government wanted to help, he said, it could provide financial assistance for producers who would like to use guardian animals on their farms. Keeping dogs or donkeys is expensive and many producers don’t know how to train or handle them, he added.
