Calming animal nothing to be sheepish about
Over three decades of raising sheep, Summerland farmer Joe Bienz has come to appreciate their calm demeanor and many uses.
“I like them. They’re such a peaceful animal,” Bienz said.
Originally from Switzerland, Bienz and his wife Rosmarie grew up on farms near Lucerne and attended agricultural college. Rosmarie later studied nursing. “My father showed me the wonders of growing things and I’ve always wanted to farm, said Bienz, who worked on a farm in Switzerland.
“Shepherds kept big flocks of 400 to 500 sheep high up in the Alps until they brought them down to the slaughter house,” Bienz recalled.
Bienz acquired his own lambs a few years after he and Rosmarie bought their 10-acre, Green Hills Farm on Denike Street in 1986.
“I pulled out a rundown orchard, planted a pasture and bought lambs,” he recalled.
The initial mixed-breed lambs were soon joined by a few more and a ewe, and with the help of a borrowed ram, Bienz started breeding sheep.
In the next few years, Columbia, Suffolk and Dorset bloodlines were introduced to the flock, which over the years has averaged around two dozen ewes plus a ram.
“I added some brown ones—never knew the breed—and a white, milk sheep. I kept her offspring to get better milk production for the lambs in the flock,” Bienz said.
Among his sheep’s uses, he includes sale of breeding stock, meat and wool production, and keeping his land clean.
“They also give me something to do now that I’m retired,” he added.
Previously, Bienz had operated an extensive market garden plus the raising sheep.
Lamb production varies from a high of 50 to the 30 born last year.
In his first years, many lambs suffered from goitre.
“I eliminated the problem by using a mineral salt for the ewes,” he explained.
Survival rate was also improved by construction of a better barn with warmer lambing pens.
Lambing, Bienz’ busiest time, often occurs in the middle of a cold February night.
“Last year a man came who bought 10 lambs and a couple of ewes to start a flock,” said Bienz, who sells about half of his lambs as breeding stock.
The other half goes for meat, while a few are kept as replacements.
Customers often reserve lambs in the spring and then slaughter them on-farm in the fall.
“They can slaughter them on the farm because the lambs are theirs, not mine,” Bienz explained.
Shearing, which he hires out, usually occurs in April depending on the weather.
“I remove the dirty fleece and sort the rest by colour,” he said.
He and Rosmarie then take an annual combined holiday and business trip to the Custom Woolen Mills in Carstairs, Alta.
The mill turns the fleece into everything from mattress pads, duvets and pillows to bats for quilts, yarn and socks.
“Rosmarie enjoys knitting toques, scarves and sweaters, but not on a commercial scale,” Bienz said.
However, some commercial weavers and knitters do buy his yarn.
“Two women weavers from Vancouver make my wool into articles of clothing, which are works of art,” he said.
Bienz met the women at the Penticton Farmers’ Market where he has been a vendor for over 20 years.
The sheep also provide Bienz with the opportunity to know his neighbours.
He raises hay on three acres and, like his small-plot farming neighbours, finds sharing equipment a necessity.
Bienz cuts a neighbour’s hay while the neighbour bales his hay.
“He literally ‘bales’ me out,” Bienz joked.