Jennifer Cunningham,
Jay Springs Lamb Co.,
Pinantan Lake, BC
Canada
Who we are.
Where we are going and why
 Marketing, value chain
How are we making it happen
 Grazing
Take home messages
-Private
land
-Woodlot
-Grazing
licence
lease
- 4 hours & 20 minutes
from Vancouver, BC
- 7 km east of Pinantan
Lake, 34 km north east
of Kamloops, British
Columbia, Canada
 10 years of grazing on cut
blocks
 Vegetation control and site
prep for plantation
management
 Entered markets - conventional approaches
 Annual sheep sales in
Kamloops and area
 Breeding and selling
purebreds
 Selling commercial
breeding stock
•
•
•
•
Local auction yards
Breeding for wool
Ethnic markets
Provincial lamb retail
promotions/commodity
market sales
 Too much work not enough pay
 Quality attributes embedded in animals by enhanced
management not supported by the markets we were
entering.
Generation management –
 Considerations: Parents retiring, management of
landbase for 3 families, assorted skill sets and knowledge
bases, courses, estate and business planning,
marketing……….
 Our mission statement:
Our want of a sustainable lifestyle motivates our business.
Our main goal: Develop a viable operation selling and
producing lambs to a market that will support a small
scale sustainable farm.
Woodlot license 311 will be a viable and sustainable
operation meeting the family partner’s social, financial
and environmental objectives.
Result
Each lamb needs to sell for more!!!
Cost based pricing systems
Much more responsive to your farm
management and your skills
 What is in a name?
 Can you live up to that name?
 Will that name hinder or grow
with you?
 Are you the real thing?
 Management of farm and woodlot together.
 Need more grass, more lamb, more trees.
1.
2.
3.
Improve production costs
 expand grazing season to cut down on hay bill
 increase production per ewe
 increase gains on lambs
Increase flock to level of sustainability – financial, produce more
lamb
Increase tree inventory on ranch to increase woodlot AAC while
protecting wildlife and ecological values and creating an multi-aged
tree diversity
This is what we had at the time to work with:

100 – 105 lb lamb finished on grass at 3-5 months
 Agroforestry system – silvopasture
 Blends management of trees, forages and livestock –
interactions are planned and managed
 System is operated for and evaluated as a single
enterprise rather than as separate parts
Agroforestry
Forest 2020 project
Competitive Advantage