Niki Schieck Describes the Life of Operating Schieck Livestock

Niki Schieck Describes the Life of Operating Schieck Livestock

Rosanne Fortier - News Correspondent

Niki Schieck owns and operates a sheep farm (Schieck Livestock) with her husband Scott Schieck east of Hairy Hill.

“We own 100 sheep, six working ranch horses, and stock dogs (herding and guardian dogs for the sheep),” Niki said.

I am a fourth generation sheep farmer myself. So, sheep farming is in my blood and Scott supports me with it. I have never spent a day without being around sheep and I can’t imagine not having them.

The sheep and animals are on the 30 acres we own which is a very small property. But is one of the reasons that sheep farming is optimal for us is because they are a smaller animal, you are able to have more sheep on a smaller property.

Sheep are a wonderful, multi-purpose animal. We have meat and get the breeding stock from them, as well as the wool. Also, as a woman who is farming by myself a good part of the year while my husband is working as a cowboy, sheep are animals that I can take care of by myself and the all-around management is quite a bit easier.

Lamb is delicious to eat. Many people say they don’t like the taste of lamb, but quite often the reason for it is they had it not prepared properly or they ate mutton which is not the same as lamb. As well, lamb is very nutritious.

I love every aspect of sheep farming. Right now is our lambing season. We have a lot of lambs on the ground that are a few months old to a week old. Watching them grow is incredibly fulfilling; knowing that we are putting all our effort into these ewes and lamb crops. Being able to make sure our animals get the best care and are healthy and happy, there really is nothing quite like it honestly.

Niki Schieck with some of the sheep she owns.

(Scott Schieck/Photo)

The challenges are; especially this past year in 2021; the drought hit us really hard. On the one hand, the feed cost was very high and the availability was low. We had to tighten our belts. This meant any animal that wasn’t producing had to get sold; and then when it comes down to lambing our conception rate and lamb percentage became lower. Lamb percentage is how many lambs your ewes have.

Also with the harsh winter we had, quite a few of the lambs we had died due to the cold weather.

The government had a subsidy last year that helped with the feed cost but the bigger thing that would help is if they would get rid of the carbon tax. That would be a huge help for us for the fuel to run our farms and to knock down our power bill.

I would recommend for others to own a sheep farm because the beauty of a sheep farm is that you can easily have several hundred head of sheep on a quarter of land and still be able to take off your own hay crop. Another nice thing about sheep is they are able to graze an area that cattle can’t or won’t. As well as the fact that sheep are carbon neutral. If anything, they are carbon negative. Sheep are forefront in the innovation of the green way of living.

I am also Director of the Alberta Lamb Producer’s Board. Across Alberta, we have 1,700 sheep producers (farmers) right now. With flocks that are anywhere from a couple of heads, to a hobby farm, to several thousand sheep. If anyone wants more info, check out the ALP website. We are advocating for all producers.”