2007 Conservation Award Winners
Farm Name: Seine River Shepherds
Family Members: Randy, Diane and Michel Eros and Solange Dusablon
Farm Type: Value Added Sheep Farm
Farm Size: 220 ewe flock on 105 acres of owned land and another 45 acres of rented land.
Background: Randy and Solange purchased their first sheep in 1983 and have spent the last 24 years developing a very successful value added farm operation. There home yard is located along the banks of the Seine River. This 14 acre piece has been in Solange’s family since 1935 and is part of the river lot that her grand parents and parents farmed until 1966.
Wanting to farm on a scale that makes sense for the river lots in the area Solange and Randy realized that a Value Added operation was going to be critical in providing a family income from a small holding. Solange has developed a line of wool felt products that uses all of the wool from the carefully selected breeding stock. Only 45 minutes from Winnipeg, Seine River Shepherds also markets pasture raised lamb directly to city consumers. Purchasing another 91 acres of river lot in 1997 allowed the operation to expand to their current flock size. Their children Diane (23) and Michel (18) are both in Winnipeg at University but are home on weekends to help with both the farm operation and the marketing of wool and lamb.
Farming practices: The flock is shorn in early April for a mid May lambing. The ewes and lambs go directly to pasture after lambing. Randy uses both perennial and annual pastures in his rotational grazing program. Randy refers to himself as a “reluctant” hay maker. “In order to keep ahead of the growing forages in June we make hay. I prefer to cut by mid June as that gives lots of regrowth for later grazing.”
Fall rye and Forage Turnips have been recent additions to the flock’s grazing menu. Only 30 acres of the operation has permanent fencing; the remainder is fenced using portable electric fence. The portable fencing allows Randy to set 5 – 7 days worth of grazing in each paddock.
The manure from the wintering yard is windrowed and then composted before being spread on the pastures. This reduces the volume hauled to the fields by as much as 60%.
Randy and Solange have been involved with the SSRRCD for a number of years making use of project funding for both field watering and rotational grazing. They also hosted a series of River Clean-up days in the fall of 2006 that saw a long stretch of the river cleared of debris and log jams.