The Rural Voice, 2003-08, Page 31Eweville Station, the name given to the Lewis
feedlot operation, is run by (left to right) Chris
Meulensteen, Jay Lewis and Alan CapeII.
enough is enough and I get rid of all
the sheep, in two or three days the
barn could be made into a cattle barn
or a driving shed."
The Iambs start in a pen at one
end of the barn and are on
medicated feed and water for
the first seven to 10 days then work
their way, pen by pen to the last two
pens. One of those pens normally
holds the heavy Ontario Iambs, while
the other would, in normal times
before the closing of the U.S. border,
hold 200-300 heavy American lambs
awaiting shipment.
They aim to shear lambs at the 90-
105 pound range before they go to
market. There are a number of
advantages. The Iambs feed more
efficiently when they're cooler and
more comfortable, he says.
For the U.S. market there was also
a premium for shorn lambs that were
clean and tidy so there were no
manure tags to worry about on the
kill floor. As well a large lamb can
have seven or eight pounds of wool
and buyers don't want to pay meat
prices for wool.
The extra advantage is that more
shorn Iambs can be loaded in each
truckload, both because they're
smaller and because they're cooler.
And finally, the wool is worth a
bit of money, but not much, he says.
"Last year was the first batch of wool
we sold where we actually made
money."
Shipping is aided by one of only
two automatic Iamb sorters in
Ontario and the first one to come into
North America. Manufactured in
New Zealand but bought from
Alberta, it allows two or three people
to sort 400-500 Iambs an hour. The
Iambs come through a race to a
weigh scale then gates send them in
one of three directions depending on
the weight.
The farm runs on what he calls
"just -in -time delivery" shipping 70-
80 Iambs at a time to Newmarket
Meat Packers which takes most of
the Ontario production. As he tours
the farm he explains that a phone call
may come later in the day to have a
anywhere from 40 to 100 Iambs
delivered the next morning. "I rely on
my cellphone, that's my lifeline."
"With what we do we pretty well
have to deal directly with the
packer," he says. "You can go to a
stockyard — we sent some to
Kitchener today — but you have to
send the right Iamb there. As soon as
you go over 100 pounds the packers
don't want them — they're too big.
Like beef farmers, Lewis has been
hurt by the closure of the U.S. border
because he depended on one U.S.
packer for a major part of his market.
"We put a load in the day the border
closed in the morning. We're always
across at 7:00 a.m. We were lucky
we got it through."
"It's not a good time for us right
now with the border being closed,"
he says, "but I'm no different than
any other farmer that exports cattle or
whatever."
"The American market is the
market that kept us going here for
quite a while. The Ontario market is
an excellent, growing market but
Sheep & Lamb
Buyer & Feeder
Eweville Station
Division of Lewis Farm
Holstein
519-334-3794
OG
-gist
Wheat,
Wheat, Barley,
Corn & Beans
Elevator
519-366-2749 519-366-2666
•
syngenta
_'1" Seed Dealer
Les Young Jr. David Young
519-366-2749 519-366-2709
CANADIAN
CO-OPERATIVE
WOOL GROWERS
LIMITED
Now Available
WOOL ADVANCE PAYMENTS
Skirted Fleeces
Well -Packed Sacks
For more information contact:
WINGHAM
WOOL DEPOT
John Farrell
R.R. 2, Wingham, Ontario
Phone/Fax 519-357-1058
AUGUST 2003 27