WHISPERING CEDARS RANCH
Living the lamb life
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BY ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
hile beef will likely always be the king of ranchland in Alberta, another smaller and woolier livestock animal is becoming increasingly popular, especially with young upstart farmers. Thanks to their more manageable size and a growing demand for their meat, lamb are making their mark on the Canadian prairies. For example, lamb has turned out to be an ideal choice for Janna and Ryan Greir, the couple behind Whispering Cedars Ranch, a relatively young 100-acre farm near Strathmore. While neither Greir grew up on a commercial farm, they both grew up on Vancouver Island, dreaming of a career in farming, thanks to the influence of Ryan’s rancher uncle and Janna’s time spent on her family’s hobby farm. Non-farming work brought the Greirs to Alberta and in 2014 they started raising lambs under the Whispering Cedars banner. Even though neither Ryan nor Janna had any experience with sheep, as young newbie ranchers, they quickly decided that a flock of lamb would be a much better match for them than a herd of cattle. “We’d originally talked about cattle,” Janna says. “But we picked sheep because we knew we also wanted to start a family
