Breezy Ridge Rideau Sheep

07/06/2025

We manage sheep. That’s all we do, weaning 2.9 lambs per ewe from 550 ewes. We don’t get distracted by trying to grow corn, beans, or wheat, just sheep and sheep genetics. Here , pasture is part of our management system . We allow 30+ days between each of the eight, 4 acre paddocks that we strip graze with dry ewes on a 3 day rotation period. Lambs are too valuable to be left out and are all raised in barns. Jack Kyle , the retired pasture specialist with OMAFA calculated we were getting 19,000 to 21,000 lb. of dry matter per acre from our pastures . We have been managing our pastures for 40+ years with Gallagher Electric fencing. Rotational grazing was developed in NZ in the 1970’s and has proven to be the most efficient and economical way to manage pastures and lower cost of production.

06/28/2025

Part 3 of Breezy Ridge Mar/April 2025 Production, real production date the 100 days weights. Parasite Resistant overall improve the immunity in sheep leading to a lower death loss with higher lamb serviceability, improves prolificacy, and growth rates in lambs. This lowers the cost of production by feeding and handling half as many PR. Rideau ewes. This type of production makes full time farming with sheep profitable and rewarding.

06/15/2025

Here in central Ontario June is always a challenging month in a rotational grazing system to keep up with the extraordinary growth in forages. You need to pay special attention to help produce high quality lush green forage for the remainder of the grazing season. We graze high numbers of ewes in a small area for a couple of days to fully utilize the forage. This is when a bush hog is handy to take off the grass seed heads. In 2013 on a pasture study done here at Breezy Ridge Farm by Jack Kyle Ministry of Agriculture, it showed that sheep on a 30 day rotational grazing system with multiple forage species can yield up to 19000 lbs of dry matter per acre over the grazing season.

05/29/2025

Part 2 of Breezy Ridge Mar/April 2025 Production 60 days weaned lambs. This is real production date from just one lambing. Our Parasite Resistant Rideau ewes will replace 2 tradition ewes with one, PR. Rideau ewe, that produces prolific fast growing lambs. This lowers the cost of production by feeding and handling half as many PR. Rideau ewes. This type of production makes full time farming with sheep profitable and rewarding.

05/07/2025

Infertility with the rams can be the problem for bad conception rates with the spring and fall breeding. Thats why we have Rex Crawford Dmv. semen test all our purebred yearling Rideau rams. We like testing in MAY when the semen levels are typically low. This give us and the buyers confidence that these rams will work when most needed.

04/27/2025

Our first day of grazing 100 pregnant ewes in one group and 135 pregnant ewe lambs in the other group. This year we where late in getting our permanent Gallagher Electric Fencing all tightened up from the winter but now it's done and the sheep are out.

04/16/2025

The 2025 Mar/April lambs was a wild season with 2 ice storms and power outages and recording breaking cold and wind but we had a great team all working together to keep things flowing.

04/16/2025

March lambing 2025

288 ewes lamb singles 2%
845 lamb born twins 19%
770 live & tagged lambs Triplets 41%
2.9 born / ewe Quads or more 38%
2.7 live / ewe
birth wt. 7 lb. avg.
Artificially fed 12%
91% live
This is the result from our 21 day lambing of pure Rideau ewes.

03/12/2025

Feeding Rideau ewes will take more effort than other breeds but the rewards are big. It’s not unusual to have a flock average of three 55 lb. lambs at weaning per ewe per year.
The big reward is that you need less ewes to produce these extra lambs because the ewes are your single biggest expense on any sheep operation lowering your cost of production.
This is where having a good ration is important.
We have always worked with a nutritionist and fed a whole corn mixed with a protein pellet, specifically formulated for our ewe flock, at 16% as feed before lambing and also while they are milking for the lambs for 60 days. This does require me to get my fat ass out of the tractor seat and get some exercise, doing some hand feeding. Feeding a pellet mixed in the ration also delivers a higher level of minerals rather than relying on the ewes to eat it (or me to remember to put it out )and a more even balance in the ration. This makes a sheep operation highly profitable with more live lambs weaned at good weaning weights. This makes the lambs easier and faster to finish in our operation.

02/04/2025

Coccidia is a major problem in the sheep industry over all, and especially sheep in confinement. With the use of coccidiostats like Bovatec, Deccox and others will help control the problem, but over time the Cocci parasite becomes less effected as it develops resistance to the medications available for the control. This is where sheep that have been purposely selected and bred for resistance to parasites excel in a confined accelerated system as well as a system that uses pasture.

01/18/2025

This is well worth watching regarding all the extra benefits of parasite resistant sheep and getting better lamb survival. I’m hoping breeders of the Dorset and Suffolk sheep will think seriously about working on parasite resistance. Dvm. Rex Crawford would be interested in working with producer groups.

What is actually occurring within a sheep with worm resistance? This week on the podcast we have a fascinating discussion with Dr Kelsey Bentley who has spen...

01/08/2025

Breeding time : Dec 28th is when we turn the rams in with the ewes that lambed in November, even though they are still nursing, and the lambs won’t be weaned till Jan 15th. Our breeding back rate is 91% to lamb in May. We have been doing this for 34 years and selecting rams from ewes that can do it.