Sheep take the spotlight at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair

Heavy horses and cattle are making room for some smaller, fluffier fan favourites at this year’s Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.

The woolly wonders have long been part of Brandon’s winter fair, which is put on by the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba, in an effort to celebrate the sheep industry across the Prairies and throughout Canada, said Simon Atkinson, chairperson of the Manitoba Sheep Association.

“It’s a great place to come out to get some information, and we can point you in other directions, based on your interests,” he said.

The association represents over 400 sheep and lamp producers – both commercial and purebred – across Manitoba, and its mission is to actively initiate, support and conduct programs and activities that stimulate and improve the wellbeing of the industry, its website states.

Formed in 1904 as the Manitoba Sheep Breeders Association, the group is also a support and member of the Canadian Sheep Federation, Keystone Agricultural Producers, and the Manitoba Forage & Grassland Association.

Atkinson is looking forward to the sheep wrangling event that will take place on the evening of March 28. Although aimed at children, it’s an event that everyone who watches seems to enjoy, he said.

“It’s good entertainment for the crowd. The crowd always gets behind those activities.”

Education is a huge part of what the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba does at the fair, Atkinson said, and the Manitoba

Sheep Association will be holding sheep shearing demonstrations to show people how essential this part of caring for the animals truly is.

“It’s an animal welfare issue not to shear them, because [the wool] becomes laden down with debris, and can become full of parasites, which is detrimental to the animals’ health,” he said.

Sheep wool grows continuously, and except for “hair” breeds of sheep – animals that produce hair instead of wool – all sheep need to be sheared at least once a year, the Alberta Lamb Producers website states. In addition to the problems Atkinson mentioned, shearing helps prevent movement issues, wool blindness, and overheating.

In addition to educating people about how sheep farmers care for their animals, Atkinson also hopes that by seeing sheep and their owners at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, more people will begin to see lamb as a viable – and delicious – option for protein, alongside poultry, beef and pork.

Sheep are still a relatively small agricultural commodity in Canada, and are a lot more present in Europe and South Africa, Atkinson said, but added that he hopes this will soon change.

“They’re a very good multipurpose animal. Providing wool and fibre is something that’s very much under-

recognized. They’re an excellent

animal as far as the environment is concerned,” he said.

Sheep farms across the country can reduce the impact of climate change through pasture and grassland grazing, which improves biodiversity and soil health, the Ontario Sheep Farmers website states. Grazing can also be done in orchards and solar sites that offer important environments for pollinators and birds. Sheep also reduce the need for mowing, and wool is a fire that is natural, biodegradable and renewable.

The demand for lamb across the country has gone up with recent waves of immigrants from countries where the meat is a staple, Atkinson said. And despite a problem with predators such as mountain lions, wolves and coyotes that sheep producers are currently facing, this could cause the sheep farming industry to grow, he believes.

“There’s huge room,” Atkinson said, adding that the more people who are willing to expand their palate and their recipe repertoire, the better. “Some people will just never try it, and other people are always willing to try something new, and that’s all we can ask.”

Sheep farmers and representatives from the Manitoba Sheep Association will be on hand at the fair to hand out recipes featuring lamb. Every country and ethnicity has their own take on cooking lamb, so there’s plenty of recipes to go around, Atkinson said.

“It’s great to go out and experience new things

when it comes to lamb or even goat for that matter,” he said. “We have a lot of recipes that we can try … which are quite excellent, to be honest.”

In addition to the sheep wrangling and shearing events, experts will be on hand from both the meat and wool sides of the sheep industry to share information with people that stop by, Atkinson said.

The Manitoba Sheep Association and the farmers and volunteers associated with it are a great addition to each and every Royal Manitoba Winter Fair, said Mark Humphries, the general manager of the Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba.

“For some years before this, we’ve been cementing that relationship,” he said.

In addition to taking in sheep shearing demonstrations and cheering on participants in the sheep wrangling event, fair goers can get up close and personal with the fluffy animals at this year’s petting zoo at the fair.

This story was originally published in The Brandon Sun. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.