Der Paschen Hof	Dairy Sheep Farm Bed & Breakfast	RR3 72680 Bronson Line Zurich ON N0M 2T0 Tel: 519-236-4361 Fax: 519-236-7280 Email: paschen@hay.net

Breeding Stock

East Friesen Dairy	purebred and crosses with Lacaune and / or Dorset (1/2,  3/4,  7/8,  15/16)	Cross-breed of East Friesen	Our East Friesen stock are our best milk producer based on mik volume of 1.3 litres per day over a 230 day lactation period. Butter fat is 6.4%, protein is 5.15% and solids are 5.45%
Lacaune Dairy	purebred and crosses with East Friesen and / or Dorset (1/2,  3/4,  7/8,  15/16))		Lacaune stock have the best compromise between milk volume and total solids, milking 0.9 litres per day over a 205 day lactation period. Butter fat is 6.9%, protein is 5.6% and solids are 5.65%
Dorset	purebred and crosses with East Friesen and / or Lacaune (1/2,  3/4,  7/8,  15/16)		Our Dorset stock are great for composition yet lack the volume giving an average of 0.6 litres per day over a 170 day lactation period. Butter fat is 7.6%, protein is 6.2% and solids are 6.9%

We are selecting our dairy ewes for volume of milk, length of lactation, milk composition, health, number of lambs born alive, maternal instinct, body structure, udder shape, calm disposition, back fat and reproductivity our of season. The ideal goal for our flock includes the following characteristics.  Lambing will occur 1.5 times per year @ 4 lambs  Milking will average 4.0 litres per day over a lactation period of 300 days breeding any time of the year.  Composition of milk will be butter fat 7 %, protein 6%, and solids 7%.  Disposition will be gentle with perfect maternal instincts and lambing will occur by ewe by itself.  Other characteristics for our goal will be good disease resistance and a perfect udder.  Once we attain our goal,we will write a book and sell our genetic knowledge with great pride. We may not be there yet but we are on our way there for certain.

Bed & Breakfast

Welcome to der Paschen Hof , the Paschen Farm for an experience on a working dairy sheep farm.  We are located about 2 kilometres south west of Zurich in Huron County, Ontario in a belt of fertile farm land.  Our new large dairy sheep barn is combination of the old bank barn fast disappearing in agriculture; the European two storey live-in barn and the North African courtyard barn.   This combination of structures was chosen for environmental concerns, climate suitability and energy efficiency. These features provide for production optimisation and animal welfare also.   Our specialty is sheep milk and and some of the finest sheep milk cheeses in North America.
Uwe Paschen	Fish Pond
Sheep milk is suitable for people with lactose intolerance.  To appreciate an older method of farming we still use horsepower side by side with modern machinery, since there are a multitude of jobs for which the horse is the best choice. Horse logging reduces environmental impact on the wood lot and protects new growth.   With the large veranda with access to the beautifully designed kitchen warm yourself in the Ontario sunshine.  For a few quiet hours of contemplation float in our fishpond.  Your breakfast will be cooked in the large kitchen on a wood burning cookstove.   Lunch, dinner, snacks and picnic baskets are available on request.   We have three bedrooms on the main floor and two bedrooms on the second floor with a shared bathroom on the main floor.

About Us

The proprietor of der Paschen Hof, Uwe Paschen, has worked for the past 10 years with mixed farming in south western Ontario. His experience includes several years in management of large modern farm operations, mixed farming, organic farming. The main focus of experience has always been sheep dairying and environmentally friendly practices. His training has been in chemistry, biology and agriculture. The training and experience as a consultant to many business and agricultural operations with respect for environmental concerns has served as a basis for the foundation of this farm, der Paschen Hof.
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Sheep Farmer Builds A Bigger Barn After Fire
By Mary Simmons
(adapted from the Wednesday, October 29, 2003 issue of Exeter Times Advocate)

ZURICH -- Uwe Paschen didn't let a barn fire last winter stop him from continuing his career in the dairy sheep business. In fact, he decided to go with a bigger operation; choosing to design and build a new barn with the capacity to house 500 ewes. At full capacity this would make him one of the biggest sheep milk producers in Ontario. Prior to the fire Paschen was milking 60 ewes. With a double 18 milking parlour Paschen said expects he will be able milk the ewes in a six hour timeframe. Paschen is starting out with 100 ewes, a mix of Swiss, Friesen and Dorset cross and English and Columbian crosses. He expects an average of two to four litres of milk a day per ewe.

Paschen said he believes sheep's milk is the future. He said it is basically lactose-free and worldwide it makes up 70 per cent of milk consumption. Paschen said sheep milk is the best milk product on the market. It is easy to digest and the fat content is an antioxidant. Paschen said he will be one of three producers in the province to ship liquid milk. Most producers ship frozen milk because it is more convenient for them and allows to take the winter off. Pasohen will keep his operation going throughout the winter months.

The barn is built in a horse-shoe shape and takes climate and wind conditions into consideration. He said he plans to close it someday with a courtyard in the centre so the livestock can be sent outdoors in the winter. An engineer, Paschen said buildings should be designed to accomodate nature. He said he designed the barn with tips from Mennonite structures, using an old design with modern touches.

Rather than water bowls, the barn will be equipped with water drinkers made from six inch pipe running along each pen with shallow holes cut in the top. This will allow the ewes to drink their fill rather than having to wait for the bowls to fill up again. There is also penning for 300 lambs, which are weaned from the ewes within a day so there is less separation anxiety. He said this will result in the lambs regarding the herdsman as their mother. "They will follow you around like puppy dogs," he said.

Paschen said he plans to get a permit to operate his own store on his property. He would like to see it become a fully organic shop, but says it is hard to ensure organic produce because of the possibility of cross-contamination with genetically modified organisms from neighbouring properties.

"If you want to stay in business you have to adapt," he said. "I've always wanted to farm," he said. "After the fire I decided I had to either do it right or get out.

Unique Farm Milks Sheep
By Ben Forrest
(adapted from the Wednesday, July 21, 2004 issue of The Lakeshore Advance)

ZURICH-Most Canadians, it seems, drink milk that comes from a cow and cringe at the idea of consuming dairy products of any other origin. But if local farmer Uwe-Eberhard Paschen's data is correct, we're the odd ones. Paschen, who grew up in Niger, Africa but lives now in the Zurich area,states close to 70 per cent of the world's milk is of sheep origin. Partly because of this and partly because his family already has considerable experience in the dairy sheep industry, Paschen has no cows but milks 500 East Friesen sheep twice a day. Where he comes from, Paschen says, there's no such thing as a dairy cow, and he firmly believes that the market of tomorrow is sheep's milk.

This seemingly unorthodox approach to farming extends also to Paschen's crops. In the fields he grows hay, "mixed grains" and various fruits and vegetables, all of which are grown organically. "We do not use pesticides or herbicides that are chemical-based," he explains. Instead of using Roundup to fight weeds, for example, Paschen sometimes uses a biodegradable mixture of soap and vinegar. "When we have a pest infestation of the fruit trees," he continues, "instead of spraying with chemicals we make soap-garlic mixture." These environmentally-friendly measures clout cut into efficiency or productivity, however. Pascben says his crop yields are better now than they were for the person he bought it from, who used artificial fertilizer and pest sprays.

The Paschen farm (perhaps better known as der Paschen Hof, which in High German means just that) is also unique because of its owners' desire to move away from hydro and fossil fuel use. Paschen hopes to move toward using wind power for electricity and methane gas to run his tractors. '"Personally, I believe...(that)"you cannot use something that you cannot pay back," Paschen says in explaining his motivation. "Fossil fuel is something we will never be able to pay back..We live on credit. So we have to come up with systems that give us energy because we need it, without abusing our resources.

Anyone wishing to experience first-hand this alternate approach to farming will soon be happily invited to do so. Since 1998, the Paschens have run a bed and breakfast out of their home,and though they are in the process of completing inside construction work on a new one, it too will be open to the public. Anyone wishing to find more information can go to the website.

www.derpaschenhof.com

Sheep Milking The Way To Go: Producer
By John Phair
(adapted from the November 22, 2005 issue of VOICE OF THE FARMER)

ZURICH -- Uwe Paschen says he has seen the future of the dairy industry and that is milking sheep. He also boldly predicts that within five-years the production of sheep's milk in Canada will threaten its cow industry.

The Zurich area farmer is one of about 40 sheep milk producers in Ontario, a number he says is about to expand dramatically over the next five years. His operation was the destination for the November meeting of the District #3 Sheep Producers (Oxford, Perth, Huron and Waterloo Counties).

Paschen says that while North Americans tend to think milking sheep is somewhat unusual, about 70 per cent of the milk produced globally comes from sheep and in most countries outside of North America sheep milk is the norm, rather than the exception. Paschen was born and raised in Niger, where his family was involved in sheep raising and dairying business. Trained as a chemical engineer, he came to Canada in 1989, and for a number of years, taught school in London, Ontario, before buying a farm just West of Zurich.

He began milking sheep full-time in 1998 and continued to expand until 2003 when he decided to construct a new bank-style barn with a double-20 milk parlour. Above the milking operation he added a small store from which he sells lamb, cheese and other sheep milk products, as well as comfortable living quarters, a practice he said is common in his native country. He said this combination gives him handy access to his 200-head milking flock, which is especially convenient for keeping an eye on year- round lambing ewes.

Paschen said Canada's changing immigration patterns ensure the future of the sheep milk industry. "In 20 to 30 years the average Canadian will no longer be of British or European descent... the average Canadian will be Asian, African or Latino," he said, pointing out that people from these countries don't tend to drink cow's milk; neither do these populations eat much pork or beef, he said. "I got into milking sheep because I truly believe its the future of the Canadian dairy industry," he said.

Paschen's flock consists of mostly purebred dairy breeds, mainly East Friesens and Dorset crosses. Other than selling some replacement ewes, he said he tries to market all his lambs (which he has custom processed and vacuum packed) in his on-farm store as well as supplying a few to a local caterer. Using his own 8,000 litre milk truck he ships most of his milk production to Silani Sweet Cheese Company, an Italian cheese maker near Toronto. He said he also sells some milk to a local cheese maker and takes cheese back which he sells in his store. "The cheese is becoming very popular," he said.

Paschen said sheep have greater feed conversion efficiency than do cattle so consequently, the cost of producing a litre of sheep's milk is considerably less than the cost of producing a litre of cow's milk. Paschen said his milk production is currently averaging 1.8 litres per ewe per day. He would like to eventually see that increase that to 2.1 litres per day.

The demand for sheep's milk in Canada has grown by four per cent annually for the past 17 years, says Paschen and he predicts that will continue at a higher rate in the future. "Demand is growing faster than we ban supply the product, we can no longer produce enough," he said. "There is probably room for another 1,000 producers in the Province of Ontario."

Nearby Beaches

Lake Huron - Ontario West Coast near Highway #21.   The Lake Huron shoreline on Ontario's west coast stretches a distance of over 200 kilometres and contains many attractive beaches.		Grand Bend Beach on Lake Huron, a 15 minute drive from the Paschen Farm.   A marina, government dock, sailboats, motorboats and commercial fishing boats are located at a marina.

Ontario West Coast Events

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Rev 2006 dec 14