Verde Oveja (Dairy Sheep Farm), Cotacachi, ECUADOR

Verde Oveja is a non-profit commercial sheep dairy farm in the Andes mountains of Ecuador.  The flock consists of approximately 300 East Friesian and Lacaune dairy sheep, with a commercial dairy and an on site cheese factory.  The purpose of the foundation is to improve the local knowledge about sheep as livestock production animals in Ecuador, provide jobs to the locals and create a unique product that doesn't exist in Ecuador.  We started the farm in 2020 and it has grown to be a thriving sheep dairy with a reputation of having the best animals in the country.  We have planted several other sheep dairies in Ecuador in the last years.  We focus on a tightly controlled reproduction program, led by Dr Heather Steyn (reproduction specialist) in conjunction with the genetics department at Genovis in Guelph.  The farm is located at 10,000 ft in elevation on the equator in Ecuador and has no seasonal effect on breeding.  Lambing "season" is every 6 weeks year round with synchronized groups of about 40 ewes that are always in rotation.  We raise approximately 40 lambs in each group, born every 6 weeks.  We produce meat lambs as well as dairy ewes and run a meat flock as well.  Here is a list of all of the experiences and frequencies that occur at Verde Oveja.  

Daily/Weekly experiences:

• Sheep milking (about 70 ewes) twice daily at 6am and 5pm - year round
• Jersey cow milking (1 cow) twice daily at 6am and 5pm
• Milk bucket training lambs - lots of lamb handling
• Daily weighing of lambs and dosing with coccidiostats
• Moving sheep flocks to new paddocks every 2 days in an intensive rotational grazing system with intentional pasture planting
• Mixing grains for balanced rations (each week 2Tons are made) and formulating balanced rations for different groups
• Making yogurtized milk replacer for lambs
• Feeding all animals on the farm (Sheep, cow, alpaca, geese, ducks, chickens, horses, kangal dogs)
• Measuring milk production on dairy ewes throughout lacatation cycles
• On-Site Farm lab: Milk composition analysis, somatic cell testing, performing culture and sensitivity for bacterial mastitis identification
• Fecal egg counts on sheep flock
• Weighing the flock, FAMACHA and BCS scoring
• Vaccination, deworming, supplement administration
• Management of an intensive breeding program, genetic evaluation and scoring system with GenOvis (Guelph University program)
• Meat flock management (separate from the dairy flock), that includes weighing, BCS, Famacha, hoof management, genetic selection
• Verde Oveja Cheese factory: Cheese manufacturing and production (aged hard cheese, semi aged cheese, fresh cheese and yogurt, fresh dairy product production of cream, sour cream, butter, buttermilk)
• Managing a laying flock of 60 chickens
• Growing organic vegatables on the farm and in the greenhouse for team consumption
• Software management system for flock records, medical records, breeding records, pedigrees, etc - "Herdboss"

Monthly and/or Ocassional experiences:

• Sheep sheering (250+ sheep in 2 days every 4 months)
• Hoof trimming every 3-4 months on the entire flock
• Ewe synchronization and breeding every 7 weeks
• Pregnancy ultrasound using a POC Butterfly ultrasound every 2 months
• Groups of 20-30 ewes are synchronized to lamb together in a 5 day window, every 2 months
• Evaluation and treatment for mastitis, including CMT, SCC and culturing
• Treatment of anemia, bottle jaw, pneumonia and other lamb illnesses
• Treatment of pregnancy toxemia, metabolic acidosis and other metabolic diseases
• Assisted lambing including mal-presentation and corrective lambing
• Intensive lambing and neonatal care techniques

Other experiences on the farm:

• Sheep cesarean sections
• Unilateral mastectomy for treatment of gangrenous mastitis (Blue bag)
• Necropsy - all animals that die or are euthanized on the farm receive a full necropsy
• Intensive care for an adult sheep or lamb illness
• Laprascopic insemination with frozen semen on synchronized ewes (2-3 times per year)
• Embryo collection on ewes as well as embryo fertilization and implantation on ewes (1-2 times per year)

• Annual horse dental clnic on 8 horses with an Eq specialist doing power dental prophylaxis

   

The sheep farm is run by both Dr Heather Steyn and Dr Phillip Steyn, DACVR as a retirement project.  There are 14 employees on the farm, including 2 Food Engineers, a farm manager and remaining support staff divided into animal care and cheese/dairy product production.  The majority of the employees only speak Spanish, with the exception of the general manager and Dr's Heather and Phillip Steyn, so being comfortable with basic Spanish can be very helpful to enhance your experience.  However, we have had English only speaking students on the farm that really enjoyed their externship.  There is a lot of hands on learning and animal care and management that is taught daily, its a very active production.  The on farm laboratory has the Lactoscan equipment for measuring Somatic Cell counts, milk nutritional and component analysis and we run on farm cultures for any cases of mastitis.  Dr Heather Steyn will teach the system tools of Herdboss for flock management, the milk metering program that drives our genetic selection program and the Milk Improvement program from GenOvis at Guelph.  

Students usually participate and provide support for all activities on the farm with hands on support from other employees and mentors.  Students participate with approximately 40 hrs per week and the hours are adjusted during the student stay to maximize exposure to all the the activities.  This is determined on the students arrival and what is currently happening on the farm.  If there is a particular activity that you would like to get experience in, please notify us before scheduling your externship, we can share the farms calendar plan and make sure you are here when that activity is occurring.  

Via San Antonio del Punge
Verde Oveja Granja
100350
Cotacachi
Ecuador