Sheep farming
Resources on starting a sheep farm, lambing, feeding and nutrition, handling, health and more.
Introduction
Ontario raises the most sheep of any Canadian province. Common breeds include:
- Suffolk
- Dorset
- Rideau Arcott
The primary market for sheep is meat, with smaller markets for wool and sheep milk.
General
Learn about how to start a sheep farm, different production systems, sheep facilities and best practices for animal care.
- Ontario Sheep Farmers
- Publication 61: Starting a Farm in Ontario
- Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Sheep
- Evaluating farm resources and sheep production systems
Breeding and reproduction
Develop an effective reproduction plan and use genetics for flock improvement to create a profitable sheep operation.
- Sheep reproduction basics and conception rates
- Choosing breeds for producing profitable market lambs
- Out-of-season breeding alternatives for sheep
- Breeding options for a commercial sheep flock
Pregnancy and lambing
Proper care during pregnancy and lambing can reduce lamb mortality rates and strengthen the flock.
Learn about rearing, preparing a lambing kit and the signs of complications to ensure a smooth lambing process.
Lamb care
Learn about best practices for lamb care including treating for hypothermia, feeding colostrum, housing solutions and newborn processing.
Feeding and nutrition
Learn about planning a feeding system, on-farm feed mixing, diet supplementation for grazing ewes, nutrition and more.
- Feeding systems for sheep
- Nutrition and feeding systems for market lamb finishing
- Low labour feeding systems and bunk design for sheep
- Feeding corn silage to sheep
- Total mixed ration use in the ewe flock
- Ewe flock nutrition
- Ewe lamb nutrition
- Sheep body condition scoring
- Publication 30: Guide to Forage Production
- Water requirements of livestock
- Soil, leaf and petiole tissue, and forages and feed testing labs
- Silvopasture for Ontario
Facilities and handling
Use appropriate handling facilities and techniques to create a low-stress environment for sheep flocks:
- Using sheep behaviour to your advantage when designing handling facilities
- Shearing facility design and shearing in Ontario
- Impact of pre-slaughter handling and transport on small ruminant carcass yield and quality
Health
Learn how to manage diseases that commonly impact sheep.
- Johne’s disease in sheep
- Pneumonia in sheep
- Pizzle rot in sheep
- Epididymitis in sheep
- Chronic copper poisoning in sheep
Read the Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Sheep for information on sheep tail length and on-farm euthanasia.
Predation
Predation is when livestock are preyed upon resulting in injury or death. It can be costly and frustrating. Learn about different techniques to manage this issue.
- Wildlife damage to livestock and poultry
- Livestock guardian dogs
- Tools for mitigating losses due to coyote predation
- Guidelines for using donkeys as guard animals with sheep
- Fencing options for predator control
Business and marketing
Learn how to forecast and plan lamb production to take advantage of marketing opportunities and increase your revenue.
- Predicting lamb finishing dates
- Predicting lamb carcass weight
- Forecasting lamb production
- Evaluating the performance of small ruminant operations
- Measuring sheep flock productivity
- Organic sheep production in Ontario
- Lamb finishing cost of production calculator
- Crops and livestock budgeting in Ontario
Publications
Publication 834: Lambing Diary
Order a free copy of the Lambing Diary, a pocket-size booklet to record lambing activity for a sheep farm business during the busiest time of the production cycle.
It contains charts to record births, deaths, cull animals and health treatments. It also has information on caring for hypothermic lambs and a lambing date calculator.
Publication 846: Sheep Management Journal
Order a free copy of the Sheep Management Journal, a book for sheep producers to record animal management and health information, as well as pasture and feed management details.
It contains pages to record deadstock information, health treatments, cull animals, pasture movements and feed mixing information. Combined with the Lambing Diary, you can record all aspects of sheep management.