If you have attended the Manitoba Fibre Festival in the last seven years chances are you have handled either the fibre or animals from the large flock of Gerry Oliver and Spirit Sands Shepherds. Gerry has been a force in the Manitoba fibre scene, promoting rare breeds, educating others on shepherding and fibre, and advocating for wool throughout the region and the country.
Gerry was not born into a farming family, but she had a love of rug hooking and other fibre art. She met her husband Ralph, whose family had a grain farm just north of Carberry, MB. They purchased sheep about 20 years ago and farm 1200 acres. Originally the flock was meat breeds but slowly evolved into a fibre flock. Gerry has a well curated flock with some rare breeds that are not found anywhere else in Manitoba. She raises many long-wool breeds such as Wenslydale, Cotswold and Romney. She raises fine wools such as Rambouillet, Polypay and Romeldale. She also has a small number of down breeds including Suffolk and Shropshire. Her breeding program focuses on developing fleeces that are exquisite and unique.
Gerry has won numerous awards for her fibre throughout the Prairies. Most recently her fleeces were Grand Champion and Reserve Champion at Olds Fibre Week and Reserve Champion at the All Canada Classic at Humboldt, SK. Gerry's fleece is a reflection of the hard work, years of experience and work she has put into raising the best animals for fleece quality, fineness, strength, durability and colour.
Gerry’s sheep breeding program focuses on two main ideas: breeding for the handcrafter and commercial markets, and producing a good dual purpose animal suitable for the meat market. With the rise in popularity of hand crafting, she tries various crosses of longwool sheep and finer wool breeds to produce both interesting and unique fibre formation, strength, lustre and colours. For the commercial market, limitations of the machinery requires shorter fibre lengths, while maintaining interesting styles of wool.
Gerry sells raw fleeces and a small amount of washed fibre. Many people enjoy visiting Gerry's farm near Carberry and picking out a fleece for their own processing, They can also be found at the Manitoba Fibre Festival and the Blue Hills Fibre Festival. She also sells breeding stock in a limited number. In the future, she will be hoping to have more finished products to sell as well as continuing to develop a unique herd, with the infusion of other rare and unique breeds.
To get in touch with Gerry contact gerry@spiritsands.ca
