Canadian Arcott Sheep

This is a really good ewe lamb, one of a pair I held for someone on spec. I will know if they are spoken for on Mon. Sept. 18. If you are interested in a really good pair of registered Canadian Arcott ewe lambs, don't hesitate to get in touch, I will let you know immediately if they are available on that date.

Sired by the VCSF 519F ram, out of a Polycott 551Y daughter, and the other animals on her pedigree are loaded with the good old Sawyer genetics that I love so much. There are still a few breeders using some old Sawyer lines, but in my opinion they are not doing enough to differentiate those lines, and everything is getting wound up to the point that the lines are not so separate anymore. This one will push back a little further, and there is nothing wrong with that. The closer to the release, the better, in many cases. This is a nice twin ewe lamb whose twin sister can be seen at the top of the page in the photo gallery at her 4-H show at Medicine Hat.

SALE PENDING

This is the second of a pair I held for someone on spec. I will know if they are spoken for on Mon. Sept. 18. If you are interested in a really good pair of registered Canadian Arcott ewe lambs, don't hesitate to get in touch, I will let you know immediately if they are available on that date.

One of the best of the bunch this year, when the large group sold we specifically chose two to hold on spec., this one really stood out. At 111 days she weighed 91 pounds, which is pretty good for a twin ewe lamb. Her sire 941G is affectionately known as "The Tank"; his dam is out of Alice 333A, and the dam 997G is out of Clover 540C. Look no further for the best producers on a pedigree than those two ewes. They never put a foot wrong.

This is a really good lamb and she will do anyone proud. She is paired up with 160L, who is another really good one.

SALE PENDING

The last son of what I consider to be the best ram I have ever raised. See the Reference Sire listing for Sheep Trax Canon 233K, and I will try not to gush. To have Clover 540C on a pedigree is always good. She is such a little scruff, and now she is 8 years old (and just weaned a set of May-born twins), she is missing an eye, if you saw her you would not look at her twice. But looks are deceiving, and she always throws better than herself, no matter what ram she is bred to. Canon 233K was the culmination of her productive life, as he is such a good ram. Anything I get after him is just the icing on the cake.

The dam is another example of some of my best, and she particularly throws high-growth lambs. As a lamb she herself grew so fast that every time I saw her I didn't recognize her. It was like there was a new lamb in the pen that I hadn't seen before. (To explain that, once the lambs reach a certain stage, I try to avoid going out to the lamb pen every day. If I only go out weekly, or even less frequently, I can spot the changes immediately.) That is the kind of growth 119D exhibited. She herself was a triplet, and she had two big piggy brothers. I tried to supplement her, but she wanted nothing to do with my bottle, and yet she was what may have actually been the fastest-growing ewe lamb I have ever had, before or since.

This twin ram was 11.2 lbs at birth, and 105 lbs at 112 days of age. Scrapie genotype QR. Muscle, stretch, good bone, smooth top. His twin brother is one of two Canon 233K rams that sold in the Badlands Summer Select  sale. He just keeps looking better by the week. This guy is available by private sale.

SOLD! Thanks to the Lethbridge Research farm for purchasing this ram!

Here is a twin ram lamb from a little rarer pedigree. The dam 28E is the only daughter of the 117D ram I have, and she is out of a Germanie ewe from Quebec. The sire 941G is a great example of the Canadian Arc 559X sons, as he is so typical- moderate sized yet extremely wide and heavily muscled, with the trademark calm temperament, and out of 104C, who is another ewe that keeps popping up on pedigrees (and an Alice 333A daughter, which is almost a guarantee of quality).

This guy had a twin brother that did not make the cut because of how he travelled (full transparency here), but he was really big, a super fast grower. This ram was a little less extreme, but that is not always a bad thing, as it allowed for proper long bone growth. (To clarify, one of the major issues in this breed can be feet and legs; some rams grow so fast that their feet and legs can't keep up, and this is a trait that all purebred producers should be keeping a very close eye on if they are feeding for optimal growth.)

197L was 12 lbs at birth, and 96 lbs at 110 days of age. That may seem a little low, but he now blends right into the group, so clearly he is catching up. Update- as of early September 2023, I have to say he is starting to look really impressive! He has excellent bone, and loads of muscle. He may actually be really well suited for using on ewe lambs. Scrapie genotype QR. Available!

SOLD! Thanks to the Lethbridge Research farm for purchasing this ram!

Here is a young fellow who has a bit of a back story. The second-youngest of the ram lambs to make the cut, he is also the smallest. He was a twin, just 8.8 lbs at birth (his sister was just 5.5 lbs), out of a yearling ewe who sadly died when her lambs were just a few days old. Well this little orphan showed us just how well he could do. He weighed 67 pounds at 84 days of age. Not too impressed? Well, maybe we weren't either, but remember he was an orphaned twin.  When we went through the lambs to pick out who made the cut, we couldn't ship this one, there is just too much promise there. For one thing, despite the fact that a pile of ewes were bred to the Hammer 143H ram, they had mostly ewe lambs, and there are only two other 143H rams available, and one sold in the Badlands Summer Select. (Two others had already been sold.) Next, this ram lamb has so much potential, given time. He is long and well-muscled, has really good scrotal size, and he has a nice topline and great legs and feet. Scrapie genotype RR. I am prepared that he may not sell until fall or even until he is a yearling, but that's okay. He's available. 

The youngest of the ram lambs available, this guy is rapidly starting to blend right in with rams that are a month older. Patric often suggested he was not good enough, because he was rather gangly, until I reminded him that the ram lamb was much younger than everybody else. In the end, we hung onto him and he blossomed!

His dam is a daughter of the first-generation Polycott 551Y ram, and a granddaughter of the foundation Canadian Arc 559X ram. These are the sheep that hit the reset button, back to the beginnings of the breed. Again, I have to reiterate that any breeders who feel that in 30+ years we should have "improved" this breed by leaps and bounds is not giving enough credit to the people in the program that created it in the first place. They knew what they were doing, and they knew what they were attempting to produce. Let's not be arrogant about how much we can improve them when in actual fact bad selection will make them worse far faster than good selection can make them better. She is a pretty darn nice ewe, and this ram lamb looks a lot like her. His birth weight was 13.5 lbs and he was 100 pounds at 83 days of age! Hammer 143H sons tend to grow, and it sure doesn't hurt them to go back to the Sawyer C 4Z ram. He has the typical heavy muscle of a good Canadian Arcott ram, along with great bone and a smooth top, and a nice long loin. Scrapie genotype QR.

Update- as of early September, look out world, this is going to be a big one. Available!

 In mid-January of 2019 the first batch of AI-sired Canadian Arcott lambs hit the ground (softly). In 2019 we once again AI'd to these old rams. All of the AI-sired ewe lambs are staying here and the available rams are all sold. I was so happy with the G crop that we AI'd again, and the H crop was just as good.

 What an incredible opportunity this has been to take the breed right back to the beginning! The lamb pictured is a son of Sheep Trax 258D and Polycott 551Y. He shows exactly what I was looking for from these sires- excellent length, good bone, and that topline! Topline can be an issue in this breed, with so many breeders pushing for ribeye muscle depth and selecting based strictly on Genovis numbers, and these early animals are showing the capability to keep that topline straight. We are also carefully checking feet. So far these lambs are looking great!

Now we proceed with the legacy of these two rams, breeding their sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters. It is very gratifying to see a foundation ram and a first-generation ram making their mark 30+ years later. It is also really interesting to note that in those 30+ years we have not really been able to improve on the breed. And I don't think that is a bad thing. It is fairly arrogant to think that we could have done so much to improve them, because this was a phenomenal breed from the start! This opportunity to 'press reset' has been nothing but good and I am excited about the future of Sheep Trax Canadian Arcotts.

On Aug. 12, 2021, I AI'd another dozen ewes to these two rams, and 8, or 2/3, caught to AI; three caught to Canadian Arc 559X, and five to Polycott 551Y. This is the last of my straws, so once again, rams will be for sale but ewe lambs will stay in the flock! UPDATE- from that AI, I got a beautiful group of ewe lambs, I am over-the-moon happy with them, as I have been the other two times. What a phenomenal group of ewes! Also I am happy to say that in Sheep Trax Canon 233K I got what is probably the best ram I have ever raised. He is my favorite Canadian Arc 559X son, to stand alongside Sheep Trax Pol 943G, my favorite Polycott 551Y son. 

I cannot stress enough how these AI sires have corrected the two biggest conformation issues in the breed- toplines and feet. The consistency is so satisfying, I have hardly culled a ram lamb for feet in the last couple of years. And the straight tops are sure nice to see.

I had two tremendous ram lambs to choose between for my replacement for the 943G ram, that I unfortunately lost in late March 2023. As much as I was sorely tempted to keep the 152L ram, I have so many sheep, both rams and ewes, from the Sawyer C 76X line, I decided to take another look at this guy. Well, I liked what I saw. First off, he is a son of Sheep Trax Ellyn 125E, who is one of my most productive ewes. She lambs out of season, and she routinely has triplets. Best of all, her grandmother is Sheep Trax Aspen 367A, who was another phenomenal ewe who was out of Sawyer C 104W. That is a ewe I love to see on a pedigree. (Three of the four grandparents you see on this pedigree go back to the Sawyer flock.) Secondly, he is a triplet, and while that is no guarantee of anything, it sure doesn't hurt. Thirdly, I love the look of him, as he is very smooth and correct, with good legs and feet and a nice straight top. His birth weight was 10.7 lbs and he was 108 lbs at 116 days of age. Scrapie genotype QR (just like his old Dad).This one stays.

I like this ram so much that I simply couldn't part with him; I sold a mature 559X son to make room in the ram pen (because I didn't need four). This whopper of a ram weighed 115 pounds at 76 days of age, and from very early on he stood out, he would be the first lamb I noticed, every time. He has the 559X stamp on him, and is very similar in type to the 38H ram. Scrapie genotype QR.

The dam, what more can I say about 540C? She raised this at 7 years of age, and lambed again in September and had a beautiful ewe lamb that sold in the August Badlands Select Sale, then had a set of twins in May. I have kept several of Clover 540C's daughters, but her rams were always sold to other breeders (her son was the high selling Canadian Arcott ram in the 2021 Genetic Impact Sale). Not this time. 

On July 26th, 2022 at 6.5 months of age, this ram lamb weighed 197 lbs. On Aug. 20, 2022 he was Champion Ram at the Priddis & Millarville Fair sheep show. Canon 233K was put with a group of ewes in August 2022; his lambs looked terrific. In fact, one of his triplet daughters sold for a 4-H ewe project at just 69 days of age! There is also a son out there who is his spitting image; two of his three Jnauary sons sold in the August Badlands Select Sale. There is one left, Lawless 183L, see listing.

233K was also bred to four more ewes for May of 2023. This resulted in a set of twin ram lambs; a single ewe lamb that I am keeping (because I have never kept a daughter of her dam, who is one of my best ewes and is now 7 years old); and two sets of ram & ewe twins. Look for any of these lambs who "make the cut" to be selling as yearlings in the June 2024 Badlands Select Sale.

And this summer he was used again, exposed to 11 ewes for January 2024.

In the national flock, particularly in western Canada, there are two Sawyer rams that have had a pretty large impact, and those are Sawyer C 47T and Sawyer C 3X. In my personal flock, there is a ewe that has had a pretty big impact, and that was Sawyer C 76X. 76X was a daughter of 47T, and she was bred to 3X; the resulting daughter was 82Y. I pined for 82Y for several years, and finally was able to purchase her from the Lakeland College flock dispersal. I owned 76X, I purchased her directly from Colleen Sawyer; she has had many daughters, and grandsons and granddaughters, added to my flock, including 82Y, who is still here. And now 82Y has a daughter here, and this son as well. This ram is line bred (the 15H ram also goes back to the 76X ewe), and he will fit in here just fine. All those old lines are gone now. How perfect to breed her to a son of a first-generation ram too! This ram was a little small (any lamb would be whose mother is 11 years old!), but when we went through the rams, we liked what we saw. And now he is really coming along. While he has that maternal-type roman nose, he is also looking particularly butch, so it looks like he got the best of both. He is a keeper, to carry on the 76X/82Y line. *Scrapie genotype RR. This ram was just bred to a group of ewes for January 2024. Someone saw him in a photo on social media and inquired about him, so I put my "I don't want to sell him" price on him. Needless to say, he didn't sell. Thank goodness. This is a really good ram, with a pedigree that simply cannot be found elsewhere.

If it is not enough that Pol 960G was my pick of the 2019 AI Polycott 551Y sons, Sheep Trax Genesis 927G is one of my favorite ewes ever. Out of Alice 333A, who threw some of the most phenomenal females ever, she is sired by my beloved old Badger 83B ram. This is a pedigree that can't go wrong. This ram is growthy and correct, long and thick, with that trademark Badger coloring on the face and ears. As I do not have a Badger son,  a grandson is the next best thing, and being a son of the 960G ram, who sadly has died, ticks two boxes with one ram. Another bonus- scrapie genotype RR! This ram was used in December for May 2023 lambs, and was just used again in August for January 2024 lambs.

 This ram's dam is an AI-sired daughter of the Polycott 551Y ram, and her dam is one of those ewes that just continue to impress, Clover 540C (she keeps appearing on pedigrees!). She is still here, and lambed again in September 2022 (a single) and May of 2023 (twins). Being a C, she is 8 years old, and just produced a phenomenal ram in January of 2022 (see listing for Canon 233K). This ram's dam (540C's daughter), Polly 998G, tends to lamb every 8 months and produced twins in January 2022.  Joe 129J  is standing out as perhaps the best ram of the May 2021 bunch (though I have to admit, I saw two from that crop that sold to Veteran Colony, and they sure looked good). Scrapie genotype RR. On July 26, 2022 he weighed 207 pounds. Because this ram is looking better and better all the time, and he is scrapie genotype RR, I left him up for sale but I also really like him, so I used him. This is one of those times where you can't quite put your finger on why he didn't sell, but other people's loss is definitely my gain. This is not a ram you ship if he doesn't sell, this is a ram you put to work in your own flock. The longer he has been here, and the more he matured, the more I realized I really didn't want to sell him at all. I just used him again for January 2024.

June-born yearling ram!  What 188F passed on to his sons more than anything is length, along with good bone and great feet. 

I decided to keep this guy, as he is the only ram currently in existence that is a grandson of the Romance 170E ram. I am confident enough in this young ram that I had him semen tested in April, and once he passed I exposed him to four ewes for September lambs (update on that, one did not cycle, the other three lambed in September!). His scrapie genotype is QR. Seeing him with the wool off, I like him even more. This is a ram I could have sold, but because of that pedigree I chose to use him.

Sheep Trax Hammer 143H is the Sawyer C 4Z son I selected to keep, to be a replacement for his sire. Scrapie genotype QR, this is a ram with great thickness, straight top, excellent bone, and loads of muscle. It didn't hurt at all to hold onto this guy. Just a year old in September of 2021, this ram was nearly as big as the yearlings and mature rams he lived with. The Sawyer genetics are strong in this one, as his dam's grandsire was also a Sawyer ram. This ram is a proven out-of-season breeder. Having scored over 80 on his April semen test, lambs sired by this ram arrived in September of 2022. Then I decided to use him for cleanup this fall, so he ran with all the Canadian Arcott ewes. Most of them are already bred, naturally (some to him), but any ewe lambs that bred before we pulled the rams in early October were bred to this ram. 

An AI-sired twin out of an AI-sired ewe, this ram and his twin sister have the most unique pedigree, having the first-generation ram Polycott 551Y ram as their sire and the foundation ram Canadian Arc 559X as their grandsire. In other words, this ram is 3/4 foundation stock! Talk about hitting the reset button!  Going back on his dam's side to the old Sawyer C 76X ewe is an added bonus, so he will really fit the plan. This ram needed a little more time, because he was a twin born to a ewe lamb that was 10 days shy of her first birthday. She did a great job with her lambs, and giving this guy more time was not a problem for me. He was used for breeding in the summer of 2021, and he has loads of lambs on the ground in early 2022. Scrapie genotype QR.

Though he is still not a huge ram and never wll be, he has bulked up considerably. Preparing to use him in April for fall lambs, I had this ram semen tested and his score was ridiculously high for out of season, so much so that, because of all the ewes he bred last year coupled with that great semen test, we have nicknamed him "Randy". I believe this ram is going to be the foundation of a very maternal line. In the 23 years I have had Canadian Arcott sheep, I have noticed (keep in mind this is anecdotal only) that roman-nosed Canadian Arcotts appear to be very maternal, and this ram is definitely roman-nosed. These roman-nosed Canadian Arcotts are a little smaller in stature, tend to have lots of mutiples, and the ewes are easy to graft lambs onto. If there is anything to the theory, then I would also venture to say that the rams are more fertile out-of-season as well. There are not a lot of Canadian Arcott breeders who do breed out of season, but for me it is another consideration. If a breeder selected only this type of sheep as replacements, they could really change the profile of their flock, so I firmly believe this type of sheep is to be used properly along with more terminal type animals, to keep the breed a good balance of both. I have kept four of his daughters this year, so it will be interesting to see how the theory plays out.

Update: All four of the daughters I kept are very typey, and they seem to be bearing the theory out. FIner boned and ultra feminine, the two triplet daughters at 5 1/2 months weighed 98 lbs and 104 lbs; the two twin daughters at the same age were 93 lbs and 94 lbs. They look to be very feminine and I will take care to breed them to a more terminal style of ram, but if the theory holds out, they will have more lambs over their lifetime and have other more maternal traits, such as breeding out-of-season and having lots of milk. Again, these things do not matter to all breeders, but to some of us they are another thing on the list to check off. It is important to be careful not to select on these types of traits alone, as doing so will change the profile of a flock. This is a meat breed, whose strongest traits are growth and muscle, and we have to remember that.

This is the ram I chose to keep sired by the old Sawyer C 58X ram. A triplet, his brother sold to a commercial flock and his sister is here producing lambs. Great conformation and muscling on this ram. He was used quite a bit in 2020 and put lots of good lambs on the ground. Damon 117D has May 2023 lambs on the ground; those that make the selection cut will be sold in the Badlands Spring Select Sale in June of 2024.

QQ single AI-sired son of the foundation ram Canadian Arc 559X, this ram does not only go back to the roots of the breed on his sire's side, but he is also chock full of old lines on his mother's side too. 966G is a great example of why it is not a good idea to select solely based on scrapie genotype. The pedigree on this ram dictates that scrapie genotype is irrelevant!   Lots of great Sawyer breeding there, from a ewe family that certainly knows how to grow. Sometimes it is the sheep that make our decisions for us. Canon 966G phenotypically rose to the top, and because of his incredibly unique pedigree he was selected to stay in the flock. This ram does not get heavily used every year, he is here for linebreeding to a specific ewe family. But he will be used again in future, every ram has something to contribute.

Single AI-sired ram sired by the foundation ram Canadian Arc 559X, and a grandson of two really good sheep: Alice 333A who was always a favorite, and Clovis 470C who went on to be a very good ram in other flocks.  This is a nice, compact, heavy muscled ram with a very laid-back temperament! As he matured, he just filled out non-stop, and has become simply a tank. If you could keep him still enough, you could safely set your beer down on the table of his back. His scrapie genotype is RR, and he is the only RR  of the 2019 559X sons. I  have used this ram and am very happy with his lambs. He also has lambs coming in January 2024.

Every once in a while you get access to the one that got away. I sold this ram in the 2019 All Canada Classic in Humboldt, to my good friends at Veteran Colony Sheep Farm. As many producers do, Joe at Veteran Colony used the ram for two years and decided to move him on. In an effort to avoid this stupendous ram being lost in commercial obscurity, I stepped up and bought him back. This is too good a ram not to be used in a purebred flock, so he has already got lambs on the ground in 2022. He is a single, but his dam was AI'd again the following year and that time she had tripets, so we will gladly overlook that. (The ram Sheep Trax Canon 38H, see listings, is from that set of triplets; clearly Dixie 258D was doing something right.) Scrapie genotype QR.

Pol 943G sired four September 2022 lambs; the two rams have sold in the Badlands Spring Select Ram Sale, and the two daughters will sell in the Badlands Summer Select Sheep Sale in August. He has January 2023 lambs on the ground and ready for private sale, and he has four May 2023 lambs on the ground. 

Here is a ram full of old lines with a family tree full of great old Sawyer and Zubot/Ivelcote animals. You cannot get this stuff anymore. This ram, scrapie genotype RR, a fall-born single, was going to show and sell in the 2020 All Canada Classic, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am confident he would have done well in both the show and the sale. I sold a half-interest in this ram to someone not far away, and in the spring of 2022 I brought him home to use.  916F is being used as the cleanup ram this fall, so there will be lots of his lambs running around in 2024.

A fall-born ram lamb I purchased from Bergerie les Agneaux de la Plaine in Quebec, this guy goes back to a ram I raised, and to the Germanie flock on the dam's side. Scrapie genotype QR. This ram needed time to adapt to living outside in Alberta (coming from an indoor setting in Quebec), so when he didn't have a great semen test in April I decided not to use him for fall lambs. He was recently semen tested again and had a PHENOMENAL result, super fertile and ready to go! UPDATE- it seems when I put this ram to work, it was too late. He only marked two ewes (the rest had been bred already), and they came up open. It is far too small of a sample to say that the ram is at fault. Undaunted, since he had that really great semen test, I am not giving up on him. He is being exposed to ewes this summer for December lambs.

This is a five-year-old ram I purchased from Veteran Colony in the summer of 2022. VCSF often only uses a ram for two years, but they thought enough of this guy that they used him at 1, 2, and 3 years old before deciding to move him on at 4 years of age. They have lots of his daughters in their flock. He is a ram with a great pedigree, being 100% Sawyer on his dam side and sired by a super ram I sold Veteran Colony 8 years ago. Sheep Trax Chevy 106C was in the "One that Got Away" category, as was his sire, Sheep Trax Clovis 470C. Chevy's dam was a half-sister of the ewe lamb I took to the 2015 All Canada Classic in Winnipeg, who won the market lamb show. Obviously these are lines to keep going! This ram is incredibly long and has great bone and a straight top. Scrapie genotype RR. Look for this guy's lambs this year, they look great. There was a set of twin ewe lambs that stood out early, and one of them was gone for 4-H by late April!