About
Pastureland Farm
It all began rather by accident. We had moved to our current home that had some acreage right after Thanksgiving in 2018. The following spring were we talking with some friend of ours in the church parking lot and they asked if our children would want to join the Saline Lamb Club. It's a part of local community fair where the young men and women raise and show sheep. I love animals and thought it would be fun and accepted the invitation. My wife was not quite as confident, but she is extremely sweet and must have figured I would muddle my way through . A few weeks later we had six Suffolk Hampshire crosses in a borrowed barn. It was a steep learning curve, but we had a great time.
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After a couple of year of raising lambs over the summer I came to the realization that I really liked keeping livestock and would prefer to have them year round. Amy probably figured I was having a midlife crisis...maybe she still does, but she was supportive and we purchased a starter flock of Katahdin ewes from a pastor in Pittsford, Michigan, followed by some Katahdin ewe lambs from a family in northern Indiana. I was having a blast getting things started and beginning my shepherd education. At the end of year we purchased a ram from Shepherd's Croft in Manchester, MI (https://www.shepherdscroftmi.com). If you are looking for great Katahdin genetics you should give them a look.
​We had our first lambs born the following spring and it was awesome. I was totally hooked. It was challenging and humbling, but incredibly rewarding. The more time we spent working the sheep the more we realized we wanted to become breeders as well as producers.
​As we were working out how to start dabbling in the breeding space, I found out that my wife had been binging YouTube videos from Sandi Brock (https://sheepishlyme.com/). She is a lovely woman who raises sheep (mostly Rideau crosses) in Ontario with her family and records the entire process, triumphs and failure alike. It's inspiring to watch and she's braver than most to share all the challenges.
One day out of the blue Amy says maybe we should raise Rideau sheep. She goes on to tell me that she's been watching Sandi a lot and the Rideau are good mothers, prolific and hearty. Never one to pass up an opportunity to buy more livestock, I started looking for Rideau sheep. Turns out that they are nearly impossible to find in the US. However, we found Breezy Ridge Farm (https://www.rideausheep.com/) run by Phil and Elizabeth Smith in Ontario just north of Toronto. Phil and Elizabeth have been raising Rideau sheep since 1989 and are the largest registered purebred foundation breeder in the world. If you are interested in the breed they are a wealth of knowledge.
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They were exceedingly kind and invited us to come visit the farm to see if we might be interested in importing a starter flock. We visited them in October of 2024 and started the process of importing as soon as we were home. The flock arrived to our farm January of 2025 and our first lambs were born the last day of May. They've been amazing sheep so far and I can hardly wait to share them with my fellow shepherds in the US.
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Warmly,
Dennis, Amy, Henry, Greta & Maxine Schneider
Pastureland Farm
Saline, MI
