The Rural Voice, 1996-07, Page 26COMPANY'S COMING!
Every Saturday during the summer John and Gillian
Crawford welcome visitors who want to learn a little
about farming sheep in Ontario
Story and photos by Keith Roulston
you'd think starring one of the
region's largest sheep farms
from scratch in two years and
starting a family would be enough for
one couple but John and Gillian
Crawford decided they wanted to get
into show business as well.
The Crawfords run a 500-
brceding-ewe farm near Gorrie,
which in itself is a noteworthy
achievement in a province where the
average flock has under 100 ewes,
but they're getting a lot of attention
these days because of a venture into
agri-tourism they began last year.
Each Saturday, from June to
Thanksgiving, the family welcomes
the public to visit a working sheep
farm, learn more about the various
breeds of sheep, see a shearing
demonstration and watch a dog herd
sheep.
Show business in Canada is a long
way from what John Crawford had in
mind whcn he started out working on
a sheep farm in Scotland at age 15.
His father was farm manager for the
Duke of Argyle and when he retired
was given an acreage on the Isle of
22 THE RURAL VOICE
Lismore. (The Crawfords named
their farm after the island, which
means big garden in Gaelic).
His life might have remained in
that world if a New Brunswick
teacher hadn't decided to take part in
a teaching exchange program in
Scotland. That's how he met Gillian
and life for both was drastically
altered. The couple were married
four years ago, living for a time in
Scotland and visiting New Zealand
before settling in Canada.
John had wanted to farm in
Scotland but the cost of land was two
or three times what it was in Canada.
When they decided to give Canada a
try, he studied agricultural statistics
to look for a productive area. It's a
fallacy that sheep can be raised on
poor land, John says, at least on the
intensive production basis he wanted
to pursue. The Crawfords didn't
really intend on settling in Ontario at
first but many areas of the country
were quickly eliminated through
studying where the best land was.
In September 1993, Gillian
remembers, the couple visited the
John Crawford and Meg the Border
Collie put on a show for visitors by
herding sheep.
International Plowing Match at
Walkerton and liked the surrounding
countryside. They began visiting real
estate agents looking for a farm that
would suit their needs. They
purchased the 200 -acre farm in
northern Huron County and set about
creating the farm they wanted.
It was a big job. John wanted to
make his living from sheep and to do
that, there was no time to work his
way slowly into the business. "To
make it in sheep you have to go into
it full blast," he says.
Much of the farm had been
planted with cash crops and the
Crawfords wanted it all in pasture.
"There wasn't a fence on the farm,"
he recalls. The fields were planted to
rye grass and trefoil with some
alfalfa. There isn't a lot of rye grass
grown in Ontario pastures but John
likes it because sheep prefer grass no
more than a couple of inches high.
WiLh
500 ewes and their
progeny on just 200 acres
(150 workable), the
Crawfords needed an intensive
pasturing system. They created 10
five -acre, permanently fenced
paddocks at the front of the farm.
Another 40 acres at the back is
divided with temporary electric
fencing which John says works very
well with the sheep who quickly
learn to obey the fencelines.