The Rural Voice, 2003-08, Page 34hitch of a hobby." he says.
Also essential for success are
suppliers and packers.
"I wouldn't be able to do any of
this if it weren't for about seven or
eight people." Lewis says.
"You have to align yourself with a
good packer." he says of running
such a large-scale operation. "When
you commit yourself to doing with
these Iambs what we're doing. over
that 100 -pound mark, they've got to
go somewhere other than a sales
ring."
With such a large output he also
needs the price
stability of dealing
with a single
buyer. he says.
When he's buying
light Iambs. he
needs some idea of
what he can expect
to get when they're
finished a month
or two later.
"The sales rings
like Brussels.
Kitchener and
Cookstown are
tremendous
people. but I'd far
sooner be a buyer
in that ring than I
would a seller. At
Brussels I am a
buyer. L'en Gamble
is one of the best men you'll ever
deal with. Before we started we
needed help all the time. Len's
helped us when we needed help."
While he does buy Iambs at sales
like Brussels. by far the most of the
lambs are provided by one buyer,
Heartland Livestock in Manitoba —
"good friend, good guy, very
trustworthy and honest."
Seasonality isn't particularly a
problem, though it can affect the size
of the Iambs available at certain
times of the year. "h was a question
we had in our minds when we started
but it hasn't been a problem for us
yet." he says.
One trucker also hauls all the
Iambs from the west, arriving every
couple of weeks with a potload.
Biosecurity is not a big issue on
the farm with visitors welcomed.
They do tours for 4-H clubs.
"I enjoy the 4-H kids. It's not
everywhere you can see 2,000 lambs
on feed at the same time," Lewis
says.
In another breach of typical pork
industry hiosecurity protocols they
buy stock from a wide variety of
farms but this doesn't bring any real
problems. There are good Iambs and
had Iambs in every lot whether
they're from local farms or brought
in from the west. he says.
That said. the western Iambs are
"a lot greener when they come in —
they maybe haven't seen the grain
that the Ontario Iambs have seen.
They seem to be able to forge ahead
a little more once we get started with
production, it does account for about
500 tonnes of corn a year and 300
tonnes of oats.
Another valued supplier, Holstein
feed mill, formulates the feed. "The
feedmill guy can make or break you
in a year — in a month if he makes
the wrong feed or he doesn't keep
your ration balanced."
Nutrition is important for the
operation. "I don't think you can just
throw feed in front of them and
expect them to do the work for you,"
he says. They switched from dry hay
to wet baleage. "We couldn't get
consistent quality
out of dry hay
because the weather
was too variable so
we had to go the wet
hay to get it."
That change has
had healthy rewards.
"We ran into a lot of
prolapse problems
▪ when we were
` feeding dry hay
because they got
constipated. The
lambs are all looser
(eating the baleage).
Our prolapse
problems are way
down."
Rations are also
changed according
to the time of year.
Special rations are fed to the Iambs in
the heat of summer to help keep them
leaner.
The two sons and father co-
operate in running their different
operations. Anson has his own beef
operation. Don has his flock and a
replacement ewe growing operation.
They grow oats, corn, beans, canola
and wheat.
"Nothing gets done at our farm
without discussion with my dad and
my brother," he says. "We try to all
work together and share machinery
and our hired men. We all own our
own livestock and we crop our own
crops. Everybody is sort of their own
boss but one head honcho, my dad,
looks over it all." Daily meetings
take place at an office on Jay's home
farm each morning to organize the
day.
A family farm in a new model, in
its own way, this co-operative
operation is similar to the Iamb
feedlot: carrying on a tradition while
breaking new ground.0
Lambs come into the barn
30 THE RURAL VOICE
at 60-100 pounds and are kept for 30 to 60 days.
them."
Lambs' lungs are susceptible to
ammonia from manure so in the
summer time the pens are cleaned
every two weeks to keep the air
fresh, though in winter the pens are
allowed to build up a pack that's
cleaned every four to six weeks.
The barn set up allows for rapid
clean -outs — about 15-20 minutes a
pen. "You can clean the whole barn
out in a morning with two guys," he
says.
That frequent cleaning causes a
headache with manure that's very
heavy in straw and can choke out
crops if spread directly on fields.
Lewis says he needs more storage
area to allow more composting to
break down the straw before
spreading.
All the feed comes from the
farming operation. "It really works as
another marketing tool for our cash
crop operation." Though by no
means taking all the farm's