Livestock

Hawk Hill has been dedicated to the breeding and promotion of heritage breed livestock. We have chosen to do this not only for the global benefit to agricultural biodiversity but to our farm’s benefit of having hardy animals that thrive on low input production methods that improve the environment of our farm. As we have retired from breeding livestock, we mentor those who want to continue this practice.

Introduction

Over the years Laurie Maus has bred and raised multiple livestock breeds: Holstein and Ayrshire Cattle, Canadian Horses, North Country Cheviot and Tunis Sheep, Partridge Chantecler and Silver Grey Dorking Chickens. While each of these breeds have their good and bad points, we chose to focus on breeding Tunis Sheep and Partridge Chantecler chickens for the last part of our farming career. We no longer breed livestock.

Why Heritage Breeds matter?

The livestock industry in Canada is dominated by just a handful of breeds: Holstein and Angus cattle, Rideau Arcott, Suffolk and Dorset Sheep, Leghorn and Cornish Cross chickens. In other countries you will find similar domination of the agriculture industries by a few breeds. This is especially true in developed nations. With the domination by a narrow range of breeds, many heritage breeds are being lost and with them the genetic diversity and ability to adapt to changing climate, conditions and diseases as well as changing consumer demands. The Canadian Government recognized that loss of heritage breeds made our country’s food security vulnerable and with most countries worldwide signed a number of international conventions to protect livestock genetic diversity. These conventions included the Biodiversity Convention and the Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources. The government has established the Canadian Animal Genetic Resource Program that preserves genetic material through cryopreservation. Despite that program, all the live animal breeding programs in the federal government have been shut down leaving the responsibility to preserve these breeds to passionate individuals like Bob and me. Consider joining us in this goal.Support heritage breed producers by buying heritage livestock and heritage livestock products.