About Us

The V&A Sheep Ranch & Woolery Company was started in 1967 in the mountains of Calgary, Alberta, Canada by two longtime friends, Vaughn Basen and Alvin Hickton – the V and the A in V&A Sheep Company. However, the company traces its roots back all the way to 1873, when Quincy Basen moved to the small town of Bearspaw (due west of Calgary), bought a modest two acre outpost of pasture land and began raising sheep. Two generations later, Thomas Hickton purchased the land adjacent to the Basen pasture (which had now expanded to 10 acres). By the time Vaughn and Al came along, the two families were well embedded in the thriving local wool business. The boys grew up as great friends and often spent time together outside of tending to their flocks.

But a major crisis soon hit the wool business in northwestern Canada, nearly wiping out both families. In the fall of 1966, catastrophic over-hunting of white-tailed deer, coupled with a crippling bout of hoof and mouth disease in the winter led to one of the worst domesticated animal predatory periods in Canadian history: The Great Coyote Onslaught of 1966-67.

Starved by the severe drop in their natural prey, the white-tailed deer, coyotes became bolder and bolder, crossing fences and climbing into stockyards throughout the upper northwest. Their prey: defenseless sheep.

The Onslaught was so severe, that soon Vaughn and Al, now both in their 20’s, consolidated their flocks for safety. They went on guard 24 hours a day, taking turns with the shotgun and watching for any suspicious movement in the distance. Still, it was difficult to protect every sheep, and the families lost about 30% of their flocks.

On a bitterly cold October night, hired hand Mitch Lundergaard decided to pack all the sheep into the barn. That one simple action would change the course of sheep herding forever. For not only did it protect the sheep from the weather, it kept them safe from the ravenous coyotes.

The move into the barn gave Al an epiphany: Indoor Sheepyards™ (ISY). Al’s enthusiasm for the idea soon won over Vaughn’s initial skepticism, and the two set out to make it work. The very first ISY in history was the Basen barn, located in almost the exact spot where Quincy Basen had started it all nearly 100 years earlier. After laying down some new sod and making some minor modifications, Vaughn and Al invited their entire flock to make their home permanently in the barn.

The early results were mixed. While the sheep were clearly safer inside, there were difficulties with food distribution and waste disposal. And, with no windows, it was extremely difficult to keep the grass growing. The extra work took it’s toll on the men, who barely had enough time for shearing and stock propagation. And with the smaller stock, it was getting increasingly tougher to make ends meet – even without the additional costs associated with setting up the ISY.

Fortunately, Lundergaard had a cousin who was a science professor at the Vancouver Institute of Technology, who he thought might be able to help. So Vaughn and Al made the 988-kilometer trek from Bearspaw to VIT to discuss their plans with Dr. Konrad van Aarssen.

Three weeks after their meeting, Dr. van Aarssen mailed sketches of a state-of-the-art Indoor Sheepyard™ to Vaughn and Al, along with a bio-chemical analysis of several grasses and a recommendation for a yet-untested hybrid that he hypothesized would be ideal for both the indoor climate and sheep digestion. Vaughn and Al quickly patented the plans, and on July 14, 1967, the V&A Sheep Ranch & Woolery Company was born.

After collaborating with some of Calgary's finest horticulturists, the two were convinced their idea would work. They mortgaged their farms and heavy equipment to finance their new endeavor and bought the empty warehouse at 21500 NW Connaught Dr in the heart of downtown Calgary – which still stands as the company’s headquarters today.

Unfazed by the criticisms of the older, more traditional sheepherders and wool producers, Vaughn and Al worked tirelessly to make their dream a reality. And it didn't take long for them to notice the benefits of the indoor ranch. With the sheep now protected from predators and inclement weather, the flock experienced a significant decrease in illnesses and morbidity rates. Not only that, but wool wholesalers began to notice a difference in the quality, too. The V&A wool was far superior to the other providers and was soon in great demand throughout the entire Alberta province.

Vaughn and Al theorized that their wool was better because their sheep were generally happier indoors. So over the next several years, they took additional steps to maximize their livestock’s happiness, with such innovations as upbeat music and separate breeding rooms. It was these sort of ideas that led Al’s wife, Callie, to coin the phrase “We love sheep!” The slogan has been the company’s motto ever since.

Callie also served as inspiration when the company's first litter of indoor lambs were born in the Spring of 1968. After helping deliver 26 offspring, she took a particular liking to one and made Al swear to never sell it. Over the course of the next 21 years (well past her life expectancy), “Little Callie” produced an amazing amount of wool, estimated at more than 1950 kg (5200 lbs). Shortly after her passing, a statue was erected outside of the Calgary ISY in her honor.

After several years of solid growth and profitability, Vaughn and Al expanded their enterprise to a second warehouse in Edmonton in 1973. Eventually, additional locations in Winnipeg, Vancouver, Saskatoon and Toronto were added. In 1996, the V&A Sheep Company expanded southward into Laramie, Wyoming. And in 2002, it opened an Indoor Sheepyard™ in Yuma, Arizona.