42 It’s Farming. And It’s Better. Better Farming | November 2024 UP CLOSE What do the next 10 years look like? Hopefully vet school. That will take another four years, depending on when it starts. As we continue to have lambs on the farm and sell them, we’ll keep using that money to get more ewes and expand our flock for a while. I have a goal of getting to the 150 to 200 ewe range, to become a bit more profitable and apply some of that profit to school loans. We also want to continue to fix up the barn and what we call the “sheep shed” so we have more space for our ewes and the lambs. If I get into vet school and get through that, I want to work at a practice close to home. I don’t have any plans of going off too far. How do you manage teamwork? It’s mostly my dad and I splitting the day-to-day chores. When I’m at school, he does most of the work, and on weekends, I’ll do chores so my dad can have a break. In the summer, we split up the work. Sometimes, he’ll do the morning, and I’ll do the evening chores. My dad had surgery this summer and was out of commission, so I did a lot while he was resting. My brother Peter steps in sometimes when we need an extra hand. It’s important to keep a good spirit about everything and not go out to the barn reluctantly. Your favourite task on the farm? My favourite task is definitely lambing. I love coming home and seeing all the lambs that were born during the week while I was away at school. And it’s a nice stress-reducer to be on the farm and looking after the lambs. Your biggest farm success? Our first lambing was a huge success for us. We had no lambing-related deaths and we felt that was super successful. Almost all of them were born on their own, and very few of the ewes had complications. They all did well. It was the ewes’ first lambing too, not just ours. How do you stay organized? That’s mostly my job. I help during lambing or when we are vaccinating. I have some paperwork in a binder that I use to keep track of everything. It wasn’t too hard this year with our 50 ewes because they were spaced out enough at lambing. We keep track of when ewes have their lambs and whether they are singles or twins, and we record numbers when tagging. When we vaccinate and put ewes through the chute, we keep track of the date and when we have to vaccinate again. I’m probably the most organized out of my dad and brother. What do you do in your free time? Most of my free time is in the summer. I like to do a lot of outdoor stuff like hiking, swimming in the bay, and some trail riding on horses. I also enjoy reading. Advice for other young farmers? I would say it’s something you have to stick with for a while. When you are just getting started, you have to be in it for the long run and don’t get too discouraged about the work and time that goes into it. And you have to be there for your animals every day. BF ‘I have a goal of getting to the 150 to 200 ewe range.’ Wilson Family photo
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