Coyote Acres & Sheep Trax

12/17/2025

There is so much news to share, and the ASBA board sincerely apologizes for the delay! The new board of directors really felt like we needed to have our first meeting and get our ducks in a row before posting. We hope you have the time and the interest to read what is going to be a fairly long post!

After the AGM in November here is your almost-completely-new Board of Directors for 2026:
We start with our esteemed President, Dr. Lynn Tait of OC Flock Management and long-time Katahdin breeder, of Bentley.
New Vice-President Lorri Lyster, Canadian Arcott and Shropshire breeder of Halkirk.
Our only director from the previous administration, we heartily thank Gerrit Brinkmann of Medicine Ridge Ovine (Rideau Arcott, Canadian Arcott, Ile de France) of New Norway for staying on as our Finance Chair.
Our Acting Secretary (as there is currently no provision for a Secretary in the bylaws) is Emma Grimmeyer (Dorset) of Clyde.
Our CSBA representative is Steph Arndt of Sheep Wrangler Farms (Suffolk, Ile de France), Barrhead.
Last but not least, the guy who may have taken on the biggest job of them all, Mike Grimmeyer of Sheep Lake Suffolks, Clyde, has agreed to chair the Classic committee.

News for all members:
For those not aware, previous President Bernadette Nikkel and Secretary-Manager Linda Brandes both stepped down after the AGM in November. We thank them, as well as other outgoing board members Kristen Kobitzsch, Cindy Crawford, Isabelle Nicol, and Kathleen Raines for your years of service to the organization.

The proposal is in progress for Alberta to host the 2027 All Canada Classic. Details to be announced after the CSBA AGM in March.

We apologize for the lack of communication, we have had to change over the 800 number and set up a new phone; we are in the process of looking into building a brand new website because of ongoing issues with the current one; we are still in the process of changing over the e-mail.

There is currently no plan in place to fill the Secretary-Manager position. We are revisiting that for the next fiscal year but feel we have enough on our plates for now.

There is a plan in place to go over the ASBA bylaws with a fine-toothed comb and give them a much-needed overhaul, so please expect some voting in your future!

Also keep an eye on your e-mail in the next few months, as we are planning on sending all members a comprehensive survey to know what is important to the members.

The 2026 Board of Directors welcomes member volunteers to sit on various committees! We have had an overwhelming response for the Classic committee (but that doesn't mean we won't take more volunteers), and we are setting up a Bylaw committee, so anyone who wishes to sit on either of those committees, please feel free to raise your hand.

For now, until phone and email issues are worked out, probably the best way to get in touch is either here through Messenger, or contact me (Lorri Lyster [email protected]). Once the kinks are worked out there will be another new admin added, but this will do for now!

REMINDER- if you are a paid-up member of CSBA (make sure you renew for 2026!), and are based in Alberta, you are a member of ASBA. Our door is open. Welcome!

11/24/2025

It's Agribition week! I want to shout out a sincere good luck and safe travels to the Lakeland College Sheep and Stuff Club. They are showing and selling a Sheep Trax Canadian Arcott ram this weekend, as well as a Cannan Suffolk and two Westergaard North Country Cheviots. They are representing Alberta producers well! Remember you can watch the show and participate in the sale on DLMS. And I know the Lakeland crew will bring these rams back to Vermilion for pickup if that suits buyers better. Please support these initiatives, we need young people in the industry. *Thanks to the LLC Sheep and Stuff Club, yes, I borrowed your photo!

11/14/2025

On Sept. 28th, six Lakeland College students from the LLC Sheep and Stuff Club came to buy a Canadian Arcott ram lamb. They purchase sheep to prep, show, and sell at Canadian Western Agribition. This year they opted to buy rams, one Suffolk, a couple of North Country Cheviots, and a Canadian Arcott. They chose Sheep Trax Nico 484N. (I think they chose well.) Yesterday I got photos of him, and imagine how proud I am, both of the club and the ram! He looks great! What a great job they have done with him.
GenOvis data is shown; his ultra loin is in the 92nd percentile. Scrapie genotype QR. He is a son of my top ram, Sheep Trax Canon 233K. Sells Nov. 29th at CWA in Regina (and on DLMS).

10/21/2025

I don't know how many sheep producers who actually see this post are people who value longevity. A lot of breeders don't keep any animal older than 5, 6, maybe 7 years old. We love longevity and look for those animals that can still produce as they attain geezer status. This is one of those geezers! This is the Canadian Arcott ewe Sheep Trax Clover 540C. She is 10 years old, a triplet born Apr. 3, 2015. In those 10 years she has had 17 lambs. I kept six (five of them AI-sired); eight made the cut to sell as breeding stock; just one was shipped as a market lamb; the last one is pictured here with her mother. I think I might name her Shamrock. Anyway, this old ewe has done it all- she has delivered singles, twins, and triplets. She has accelerated and lambed out of season. She has been AI'd three times and caught each time. She is the dam of my best ram, Sheep Trax Canon 233K, who weighed 115 pounds at 76 days of age. She still has a beautiful udder. She is in very good condition. If the day comes I have to ship her, I will be a very grumpy person on that day.

08/06/2025

07/14/2025

We would like to thank the Canadian Sheep Breeders Association and the Manitoba Sheep Association for a great All Canada Classic 2025 in beautiful Brandon. I am sure i will forget somebody, so I will do my best to add thanks to:
-all the directors and volunteers, particularly Bethan Lewis, Sarah Lewis Joel Lewis, Kendra the vet, Sarah Brien, all the usual suspects;
-all the exhibitors;
-the judges;
-all the buyers, both repeat customers and new ones: Starborn Farms, Don Johnston, Joel Lewis, Estuary Colony, Daniel Ecker, Emma Grimmeyer, Max Wegner, Thomas Leggott, and last but not least, the people that bought the fall-born Canadian ram whose name I won't know until sale results are posted or I find that card you gave me, whichever comes first, and one more we have yet to identify. We have sheep going to BC, AB, SK, MB, and QC.
-HUGE thanks to Donna Courchesne, a Dorper breeder from Quebec, who was the go-between who made that great sale to Starborn Farms happen. I owe you big time! Also to Daniel Ecker, you make a Horned Dorset guy feel appreciated. Ted Tschetter, I am so glad you got the ram and I love how you appreciate him.
Highlights (aka the stuff you will always remember)-
-the smoke, the heat, the humidity;
-catching up with old friends and making some new ones;
-the banquet;
-Patric buying Emma's Dorset ewe lamb, and Emma buying Patric's Dorset ewe lamb, and neither one of them realizing until after the fact that they had bought each other's lambs;
- Graham Rannie showing up with a box of Tim's coffee at exactly the right moment!
Edit to add: how nice it was to see the Bardens again, and to finally meet Scott & Jen Mar-Mac Acres Kealey in person, and to see Darwin Gork and Konur Gork again, haven't seen you guys since the Classic in 2019!