The land supports us, so we have to support the land.
Uniquely positioned near the shores of Lake Winnipeg, what we do on our land matters. We take great pride in trying to manage our land in the best way possible for our animals, our community, and the communities beyond that rely on Lake Winnipeg being healthy.
Check out what we are working on to help improve our land and manage it in a lake friendly way!
Over the years we have implemented a variety of projects and practices in order to not only care for the land, but to improve it.
Learn More Below!
Intensive Rotational Grazing
It sounds more intense than it is!
We have designed an intensive rotational grazing system for our animals. Our pastureland has been fenced off into 10 distinct 1 acre paddocks. The sheep remain on a paddock for 4-8 days (depending on the time of year) before being moved onto a fresh paddock.
This practice hosts many benefits for both our livestock, as well as the land itself:
Our sheep graze their entire pasture.
This means they aren’t only eating their very favourite plants, leaving the others untouched to flourish. This leads to uniform grazing pressure on all the plant species, meaning that weeds do not have the opportunity to take over, leading to a more diverse pasture ecosystem.
It also spreads the sheep manure around, as well as their footsteps. The manure spreads plant seeds and fertilizes the pasture evenly, and their footsteps stimulate root growth in plants as well as help to incorporate plant seeds into the soil.
Our pastures get to rest.
Using this method, once the animals have been moved from a paddock, that paddock gets between 40-80 days of rest, allowing the pasture plants to put down roots and recover vigorously from their grazing period.
Wetland Creation
Wetlands are one of the most diverse and beneficial ecosystems on our planet. Nearly 90% of wetlands have been drained in the populated regions of Canada, mainly for agricultural land expansion. As the wetlands have disappeared, we have seen the impact on the health of our lakes and rivers and the creatures that rely on them. We have spent years working to rebuild these precious ecosystems, and hope to continue enriching the land with wetland habitats.
Our first wetland project was to create a natural marsh to collect runoff from the barn and pens where our sheep spend the winter. This slows the water down and allows plants to take up the excess nutrients in the animal waste before heading into the municipal ditch and lake.
Eco-buffer Shelter-belts
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