Still Heron Farm

08/09/2026

Still not where we want to be, but a little better than last year! Ideally with more infrastructure and permanent fencing, we will be able to set up, and rotate smaller areas over shorter periods and have it be less labour intensive.

We are aiming for 15 sections grazed for 3 days each, allowing for a 45 day rest period. Of course seasonally that will change, but that is the goal we are working towards over the next couple of years. 🌾

07/08/2026

Everyone is enjoying a nice little break from the rain 😉

06/30/2026

05/19/2026

After tearing up the waterer in -30 this winter, spring thaw brought some inevitable shifting and settling of the concrete pad. A large crater developed around the riser pipe and the whole pad began to tilt heavily to one side.

This long weekend we tore down the fence, lifted off the waterer and the pad, filled the crater and built up the ground around the pad, and built a section of fence on hinges over top of the waterer to allow for easy access during maintenance.

Fresh wood always looks so sharp and fancy! Still have a few finishing touches to add though.

Always thankful and grateful for family willing to help implement my visions! Even when they aren't fully thought out yet! 😅

05/04/2026

With the exception of one maiden ewe, lambing for 2026 has come to an end! It was an off year for us.

It was a bit of a long winter, with waterer troubles during a cold snap, loosing a couple ewes to unlucky occurances like age related heart failure, an abortion after a vet trip to patch up an eye injury, and a small number of lambing issues including our first (and likely only) Hydrops lamb- we broke our record number of singles by over double.... Leaving us with a lambing rate of 1.4. Pretty darn low 😅

Ultimately, we are thinking the stress of the waterer going down in December, resulting in all of the construction, change of water sources, and pen shuffling, we really stressed these gals out, and it took its toll. Most of the singles were out of ewes in their prime!

This year we had a lot of firsts! We sent our first liver off to check mineral status which came back with great results. 🎉
We lost a handful of ewes and did 2 post mortems, both good for learning, and building a relationship with a new vet, to confirm we were not dealing with any herd wide issues.
We have dialled in our nutrition program more than ever, and have felt most of our grow outs were coming along nicer than previous years. This of course only added to the confusion as to why we were having so many random struggles!

Definitely felt frustrating!

With all that said, these gals have been nearly problem free for 6 years, so we will take one rougher one 😉
We are very thankful that all our ewes are doing well and lambs are off and thriving!

A big Thank-you to everyone that has reached out with the interest of purchasing lambs or breeding stock this year! We are excited to see the interest for breeding stock increase.
Unfortunately our numbers are lower than expected, and because we are also wanting to grow and improve our own herd, we have a very limited number of ewes and lambs available.
Over the coming weeks will reach out to those who inquired with what is available.

Thank you for reading to the end!
Here's to healthy animals, always learning, and the promise of next season! 🍻

04/22/2026

Thinking ahead is key 😜

04/22/2026

This big ol beast has been here a year now!
Shars and Sheep Spyder. Still in the process of growing into his guardian duties, but the head on this boy is just great, he deserves a shout out! It is rare when the puppy in him makes us want to pull our hair out 😉 We have kept his socialization down with visitors, just to keep him a bit more serious than koda when it comes to security, time will tell if that is successful, but he is often behind the scenes around here. As the goat herd grows we will begin leaning on this boy pretty heavily.