Alberta sheep producers are seeking access to the province’s community pastures to provide additional grazing for their flocks.
Members of the Alberta Lamb Association are being encouraged to approach local community pasture boards and request that sheep be accepted.
“There’s a big demand for it,” said association president Phil Kolodychuk, who has a 250 ewe operation near Bluesky, in Alberta’s Peace River region.
“A lot of producers have told me that they would like to be able to get their sheep into community pastures. It would really help producers out. It would free up their own pastures to let them grow for fall grazing and it would help people to be able to expand.”
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Alberta has 32 provincial grazing reserves, also called community pastures, each with an association responsible for the care and management of livestock and forage resources.
“At the moment, none of the pastures take sheep,” said Dean Hystad, a rangeland agrologist with Alberta Sustainable Resource Development in central Alberta.
Kathy Kiel, a spokesperson with the department, said one or two requests come in every year from sheep producers seeking grazing access on reserves and community pastures.
Such requests are referred to the affected grazing reserve association.
Sheep do graze community pastures in Saskatchewan, which also uses flocks for leafy spurge control.
Kolodychuk said Alberta grazing associations don’t seem keen on accepting sheep, partly for cultural reasons. He thinks the associations might have to be directed by the province to change their views.
“We’ve been talking to the government for a few years now and haven’t had much success with that,” he said. “They say that (sheep grazing) is allowed but if you go to a community pasture that’s run by cattle guys, they don’t want to have anything to do with sheep in their pastures. I think it’s a cowboy mentality, really.”
Though predation and fencing can be issues for sheep, Kolodychuk said guard dogs and shepherds could minimize problems.
That’s what Eric Verstappen does. The sheep producer from High Prairie, Alta., is keen to expand his flock from the current 600 ewes to about 1,500. Access to more grazing would aid in that effort.
As a recent immigrant from Holland, Verstappen has been raising sheep for 25 years and has experience with grazing sheep in public areas.
He is now exploring similar options in Alberta, for sheep grazing in ditches, power line right-of-ways and forestry cut blocks. Verstappen has already had some success with ditch grazing and is trying to get more producers interested in other opportunities.
The Canadian cattle herd has shrunk recently and Kolodychuk thinks that might bring opportunities for sheep to use pasture.
“Grazing leases are sitting empty and it wouldn’t take a whole bunch to make it accessible. So I guess we’ll just continue to try to get the government to help us out.”
Kolodychuk noted sheep acceptance could bring revenue to community pastures, while also helping producers expand to meet a growing demand for lamb. He said he would be interested in additional pasture, as would many others.
“It would free up my home quarter to cut it for hay and then have some decent fall grazing,” he said.
“And if you can get rid of them for three months and not have to look after them, that’s a bonus too. We’d definitely be able to expand a lot faster and more economically.”
