It was with much deliberation that we have decided to sell our Scotch Mules and Blackface sheep and concentrate on our Dorset flock. It wasn’t an easy choice, but with the hay and grass shortage for the second year in a row, we decided it was something we had to do.
They have gone to a new home in Ontario, where the folks will be continuing the program that we started in 2014. We would like to wish them success and we hope they enjoy them as much as we did. They are truly beautiful sheep.
Breeding season is upon us, so our purebred Dorset ewes are getting flushed with a bit of grain and second growth alfalfa grazing. They will soon be going with the rams to be bred for January lambing.
Our Purebred Dorset Ewes at the Grain Bunk
New Dorset genetics for Canada!
We have just ordered semen from these two powerful Australian rams and are really looking forward to seeing their lambs in the new year! UPDATE: It will be spring of 2020 when we get lambs from these rams.
Gooramma 308 Guru
Gooramma 723
Our spring lambing is in full swing, with 250 Dorset, Scotch Mule and Blackface ewes lambing. I am so grateful for my Dad and Mom (Dave and Norma King), who drove 8 hours from Alberta to come help me get our new jug room set up. Dad, who is 78, built 43 jugs and a watering system for them. Mom, 77, kept us fed with delicious meals, while I was doing sheep stuff and helping Dad. Here are some photos to show how we have set things up. We plan to finish the barn this summer.
Yesterday was our annual shearing day and the first time in our new, not quite finished barn.
Big thanks to our shearers: Lorrie Reed, Logan McDermit, Donald Struck, Bonnie McNary and Reba McNeil.
Also, very glad to have help from our son, Carson; grandkids, Taylen and Hunter McDermit; and friends, Heather and Julian Ireland.
The snow storm arrived at 2:30 and we were all done by 7:30. What a good feeling to have all the sheep in the barn, as snug as bugs in a rug with the nasty weather going on outside. (Click on the photos to enlarge them).
Well, I decided I didn’t want to shovel or pail pellets anymore, so I built a wooden hopper inside the grainery last week.
I also didn’t want to pay $3000 and have the bin raised on a steel hopper.
It took one woman, a DeWalt nailer, a mitre saw, a skilsaw, 38 4x4s, 11 sheets of OSB, 7 lengths of foam pipe insulation and some nails.
Here are a few photos and description of how I built it.
This is a bit late, but we hope everyone had a nice holiday season and we wish everyone the best in the New Year.
This year, we don’t start lambing until mid March, so these days there is not very much exciting going on at the ranch. Just feeding sheep and guardian dogs…….
Winter Feeding the Ewes
Feeding the guardian dogs and ewes. Our yard is half a mile south of our son’s place, so the dogs go back and forth across the field. I have anywhere from no dogs, to six dogs to feed in the morning.
We shred the hay for the ewes on fresh ground each day until the paddock has been covered. Then we move and feed in a different paddock. The nutrients from the sheep manure and leftover hay help the growth of the plants the next season. It also cuts down on cleaning corrals and we feel the sheep are healthier when not closely confined.
Feeding the 6 Guardian Dogs
Winter arrived here in southern Saskatchewan on November 1st. We got quite a bit of snow and it looks like it’s going to stay.
Here’s the flock this evening, coming in for the night. Dorsets, Blackface and Scotch Mules.
It has been a very busy summer, fencing new pastures, building new corrals, working on the barn, putting up hay, etc.
I’m really excited about this past weekend, when I took the Sheep Cervical AI course at Lakeland College in Vermilion, AB.
It enables us as producers, to cervically AI our own sheep, which gives us a low cost alternative to laparoscopic AI.
It will allow us to control breeding synchronization independently of veterinary availability and scheduling constraints.
It gives us the opportunity to use more widely diverse genetics, including those from other countries that we can import from.
Thanks to:
- Dr. Phil Purdy (USDA) and Dr. Carl Lessard, curator of CAGR, who taught, demonstrated and coached us through the procedure.
- Jason Cooper who saw the need for a course like this and organized it.
- the SSDB and ADOPT for sponsoring it.
Review before hands-on practice.
Lakeland Sheep Cervical AI participants and instructors.
Sheep Cervical AI kit
Lambing is pretty colorful this year with 5 different breeds of lambs being born.
We have Dorsets, Blackface, Scotch Mules, Scotch Mule x Suffolks, and 3/4 Bluefaced Leicesters.
It has been a 2 1/2 year process since we started our Scotch Mule program, and we have been waiting anxiously to see how they perform. So far, we absolutely love them. Their mothering is second to none, and their Suffolk sired lambs are gorgeous! They have not disappointed us. Now we know for ourselves, why there are millions of Scotch Mules in the UK! We will be keeping track of the rate of gain on their lambs to see how they do.
We plan to continue to build up a flock of about 100 Scotch Mule breeding ewes and then we will start selling ewe lambs and yearling ewes.
Scotch Mule x Suffolk ewe lamb.
Scotch Mule ewe lamb.
Twin Blackface ewe lambs.
Dorset lamb.
We had all of our sheep sheared on Friday and Saturday by Lorrie Reed’s shearing crew. Thanks to everyone for all your hard work:
- Lorrie Reed and his crew, Logan McDermit, Laverne Struck and Wayne Loewen;
- brothers Guido and Edmund Cousins from New Zealand who stopped in to help;
- Ken and Grace Small who came to give us a hand on Friday;
- Reba McNeill who drove 3 hours to do some shearing on Saturday;
- Heather Ireland and her son, Julien who came from Regina for Saturday;
- our daughter-in-law, Charlotte who looked after the meals, feeding everyone as well as keeping the shearing chute full.
Thanks so much, everyone! ”Many hands make light work”!
767 sheep were sheared in about 10 hours!
We will be shearing our flock today and tomorrow.
If you would like a raw fleece, send me an email with what kind you would like to mcdermitranch@gmail.com
Here is what we will have:
Scotch Mule (Bluefaced Leicester x Blackface) – $15/lb
Dorset Mule (Bluefaced Leicester x Dorset) – $15/lb
Dorset – $10/lb
Texel - $10/lb SOLD OUT
Blackface – $5/lb SOLD OUT
The fleeces will be skirted and will have some vm (hay) as they are not coated.
Whole fleeces and 1 pound samples available. Whole fleeces will range from 2 to 5 lbs. Staple length will be 3 – 6 inches depending on the breed.
Local pick up or shipping via Canada Post which costs approximately $15-$25 depending on the weight and destination.
E-transfer (preferred) or Paypal accepted.
The photos below are an example of a Dorset Mule first year fleece.
February and early March were busy months when we lambed out 162 commercial ewes.
Now we have a break until the first of May.
Our shearing days are scheduled for April 7 – 8.
Happy Valentine’s Day, 2017!
Our “Yin Yang” lamb. The first lamb we have had with markings like this.
Off to feed the sheep.
Wow! We are already nearing the end of January!
We had a two week cold spell in which we lambed out 50 purebred Dorset ewes that were bred to Briar Glen 100B. His lambs are looking very promising! If you would like to get your name on the list for a ram lamb, contact us by email at mcdermitranch@gmail.com.
We hope to consign to the 2017 All Canada Sheep Classic in Red Deer, AB the July long weekend, as well as the Grasslands Sheep Exhibition at Humboldt, SK in July.
Here are a few photos from the last few weeks.
The flock of 760 waiting to be sorted into breeding groups in December.
Leading the Dorset ewes with a bale on the Haybuster.
Blackface, Scotch Mule and Dorset ewes standing at the gate.
Blackface and Scotch Mule faces.
Congratulations to Furze Farms, Jo and Teresa Walker, who won Supreme Ram at the 2016 SSBA Sheep Show at Canadian Western Agribition in Regina, Saskatchewan!
The 10 month old ram lamb was sired by McDermit 41A, a ram that they purchased from us. It is nice to see our breeding stock working well for other producers.
Dorset Champion & Supreme Ram at 2016 Agribition
Where has the summer gone? It’s hard to believe it is the first day of Autumn!
Lambs off to market on the semi.
The market lambs are all gone, except for a few for farm-gate customers.
The ewes are fattening up on alfalfa regrowth, the ewe lambs are in their own pasture, growing out….. and the rams are itching to get out with the ewes!
We will be winter lambing a group of purebred ewes in January and some commercial ewes in February. Hope the weather is kind!
We drilled a well in the new yard so we have lots of work to do before freeze up – trenching waterlines to waterbowls, building corrals and getting the pole barn ready for winter lambing.
Getting the well drilled.
It’s about time we introduced our new stud ram:
BRIAR GLEN 100B, the high selling, $3800 ram of the 2016 All Canada Classic Sale in Richmond, Quebec. He was bred by Briar Glen Farms, Alan and Marilyn McCorkindale from Sooke, BC.
We really like this ram’s thickness, length, depth and correctness.
We turned him out with our purebred ewes today, so will be looking forward to his lambs in January.
To view his pedigree on the CLRC website click here.
We have been very lucky to have a mild winter with very little snow. It has been easy on the livestock (and the shepherds).
When I took hay out to the Dorset ewes one morning in February, they were all waiting for me on top of the hill – along with the three Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dogs.
We had very heavy hoar frost on February 25 which made for some neat photos. It also means we will get rain in 3 months (May 25) and 6 months (August 25).
We are so glad for the livestock guardian dogs alerting us when something isn’t right!
When I went out to feed the dogs and sheep one morning in March, Ben didn’t come for his dog food. I found him standing beside a ewe that was “cast”.
(This happens to sheep and cows sometimes that are heavily pregnant and full of hay and water. When they lay out on their side, the weight over-balances toward their backbone and they inadvertently roll onto their back and can’t get up). If not found in time, they will suffocate.
I helped this ewe up and she walked away, although a bit wobbly at first.
At last, the rest of our market lambs were sold and loaded on Saturday. We don’t normally have them this long, but there is a glut in the lamb market and the packing plants and feedlots are full to capacity. We haven’t been able to get a buyer to take them until now.
