Some sheep producers in Alberta are flocking together, hoping to get more money for their lambs.
Among them is Brian Taylor, a producer at Darwell, Alta., who is working with others in his area to start a marketing co-op or some other entity that will reduce their reliance on the open market.
The hope, he said, is to have a group of producers who can consistently supply 100 lambs a month to be sold to wholesalers and retailers or into the restaurant market.
There are at least two other groups of producers in Alberta pursuing similar efforts.
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Taylor said when lamb prices are good, producers don’t mind putting their animals on the back of a truck and hauling them to an auction mart. But when prices are weaker, producers are more inclined to search out other marketing opportunities.
The challenge with forming a marketing co-op and forging alliances with wholesalers and retailers is to be able to supply a regular volume of animals that are of consistent quality, Taylor said.
An added challenge with restaurants is that these tend to prefer only certain cuts, particularly the racks of lamb. That means a producer group needs to find other markets that would be interested in the cuts of meat that would be left.
Despite the challenges, Taylor is hopeful that the group of producers he is working with can have the plans for their marketing initiative firmed up this summer.
Susan Hosford, with the business development branch of Alberta Agriculture, is seeing several innovative efforts by producers to add value to their animals.
“Producers have to look at the local advantage,” she said, noting that restaurants are increasingly looking for meat that is produced closer to home, which gives them an added assurance that it will be fresher. “Regional cuisine is becoming more important for chefs.”
Meanwhile, Hosford said producers are becoming more astute at marketing through the internet, and they are looking for other products they can sell, such as cheeses, soaps and lotions made from ewes’ milk.
She knows of one Alberta producer who developed a wool insulation that can be used in homes. Last year, that producer sold 2.7 tonnes of wool insulation, which Hosford said is roughly the equivalent of the wool from 2,000 head of sheep.
Lamb prices in Alberta are decent now, Hosford said, but producers’ earnings are eroded by the high costs of feed. That province usually runs about 125,000-150,000 ewes, but those numbers are probably down 15 percent because of the drought.
Taylor augments his income from sheep through farmgate sales. However, he said there is a lot of extra work involved with that.
The producer needs to find out how the customer wants the lamb cut up. The animal then has to go to a provincially approved abattoir for processing and then the producer has to pick up the meat and deliver it to the buyer.
“My experience has been you can make more money that way, but there is a lot more work.”
