Ty & Drew Mandel

Whisky Gap Farms

Sheep have always been a big part of the Mandel family life. Ty grew up east of Fort Macleod, where his family ran commercial ewes, for as long as he can remember.

Ty, his wife Drew, and their children, moved to Whisky Gap, southeast of Cardston in 2010.

We are always looking for ways to improve our ewes and lambs in our commercial herd. In doing so, we began to research ways to increase our lambs feed conversion and yield. It quickly became evident that the Il de France breed stood out, time and time again. It has been many years now that we have been breeding them to our commercial ewes, while feeding lambs and keeping replacements with great success. When these lambs hit the scale, it didn’t take us long to figure out we needed this cross in our herd. Their aggressive, maternal instincts with their lambs, and at the feed bunk, proves why they perform so well in a large flock. In 2012, we purchased a herd of purebred Ile de France ewes. Through new sire rams and artificial insemination, we have been able to expand our Ile de France bloodlines.

In 2020, we purchased a flock of purebred Canadian Arcott and Rideau Arcott ewes and yearling rams. Canadian Arcotts are well adapted and will produce fast growing, high yeilding lambs. Rideau Arcott are also known for their maternal nature, good milk production and having mulitple births.

Our ultimate goal is to produce high quality, low maintenance rams that will stand up in your flock.