Sarto Sheep Farm | New Zealand processor to help producer expand to 30,000 ewes
A New Zealand lamb processing company is working with Canada’s largest sheep farm to increase its flock from 5,000 to 30,000 ewes within five years.
Sarto Sheep Farm of Manitoba and Integrated Foods of New Zealand plan to form Canada Sheep and Lamb Farms with a goal to build a vertically integrated sheep and lamb business on the Prairies.
“We want to build a multinational sheep business,” said Gary Alexander, managing director of Integrated Foods.
Under the agreement, Integrated Foods will invest the money and Smith will invest his land, sheep, buildings and expertise into Canada Sheep.
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The partners hope to build a federally inspected lamb processing plant in Manitoba within two years to capture premium lamb prices.
Pat Smith of Sarto said Integrated Foods brings expertise in processing lamb to get the maximum value out of a carcass.
“The New Zealand expertise in how to process a lamb will allow us to get much more value out of that lamb and certainly appeal to the marketplace with a product the marketplace wants to buy.”
Integrated Foods slaughters and processes 243,000 lambs a year at its plant in Gisborne, which is considered small by New Zealand standards.
The company, which sells into high-end food stores, has 65,000 ewes and 4,000 head of cattle on 40,000 acres. Its parent company, Mangatu Corp., is also involved in the food and forestry business.
“We have a lot of expertise in the boutique end of processing. We try to extract maximum value for the animal,” said Alexander, who grew up near Cochrane, Alta.
Smith hopes that increasing the Canadian flock size with uniform sheep will attract the attention of consumers, high-end restaurants and stores and increase the popularity of the company’s lamb.
Smith, who is president of the Canadian Lamb Co-op, said the industry has been unable to catch the attention of major retailers without a regular and uniform supply of lambs.
“Now, the co-op doesn’t have ability to satisfy demand, and big players don’t want to place orders because there is not enough sheep.”
The new company plans to sell its lamb through the co-op. All lambs are now sold to an Ontario processing plant.
Manitoba’s foreign ownership rules meant Integrated Foods needed an exemption from the provincial government to buy land in the province. The deal became official at the beginning of March.
Integrated Foods originally looked at buying land in Alberta and importing sheep from New Zealand. Instead, it teamed up with Smith, who has been raising sheep for almost 40 years.
“I saw a real opportunity for us to be involved there,” said Alexander.
Canada Sheep will provide contracted producers, or multipliers, with bred ewes. The lambs will stay at the multipliers’ farms until weaning, when they will be moved to a Canada Sheep feedlot and finished as breeding ewes for new multipliers or market lambs.
Sytse van der Zijil of Beausejour, Man., the first multiplier signed by Canada Sheep, said working with Canada Sheep was the easiest way to quickly increase his flock.
The family moved from the Netherlands in 2011 hoping to get into the dairy business. However, high quota prices forced the family to raise sheep on a converted dairy farm.
The family began with 300 of their own ewes, but have expanded to 1,000 since partnering with Canada Sheep. They hope to reach 2,500 ewes within the next two years.
“You can come quick to a farm that is livable and profitable,” said van der Zijil.
Smith has lined up three more multipliers for next year, all with experience in dairy or hogs and all with facilities that will house the lambing ewes. Canada Sheep hopes to add five new multiplier sites a year in the third and subsequent years.
Using old, abandoned or underused dairy or hog facilities is the ideal way to raise the sheep year round, said Smith, who raises 5,000 ewes in his intensive breeding operation that focuses on raising multiple lambs throughout the year.
His 5,000 ewes lamb three times in two years, and the average ewe produces 3.5 lambs a year. That intensive, year round lambing model will be the template for the new company’s multiplier barns.
Smith believes it is possible to expand to 30,000 ewes in five years.
Canada Sheep will focus its growth in Manitoba, but could build a second feeding operation in Saskatchewan, depending on how the business grows.
Smith said following strict protocols from breeding to finishing will be one of the keys to expanding the business and raising sheep year round.
“I believe they are the difference between a profitable operation and a less profitable operation with less mortality than the average sheep farm has and more lambs going to market,” said Smith.
“Those things don’t happen by accident, even with the best genetics. They happen with proper protocols and good genetics.”
Ewes on his farm produce three or four lambs each lambing. Only two are kept on the ewe and the others are raised in a nursery.
Alexander said he sees tremendous opportunity in North America for increased lamb production. Canada consumes 35,000 tonnes of lamb a year, but half is imported, much from New Zealand.
“There is plenty of room for growth,” said Alexander, who believes there are plenty of opportunities to customize the lamb for different markets.
