New Sheep From The Classic

We missed taking sheep to the Classic in Winnipeg due to getting the flu, but we were able to make a quick trip out for the sale on Saturday. It was a barnfull of excellent quality sheep!
We are pleased to announce these additions to our flock:
2 year old (pre-purchased) Dorset ram, Brien G&L 55A
Yearling Texel ram, Lot #302 Orchardview 60B (to put on the Scotch Mules),
and 4 nice Dorset ewe lambs ~
Lot #56, Reserve Champion Dorset Ewe and
Lot #72, 1st place Junior ewe lamb both from Shereff Stock Farm,
Lot #63 from Furze Farms and
Lot #65 from Heeroma Farm.

We are looking forward to seeing what these new sheep will add to our program.

Brien G&L 55A (Dorset) and Orchardview 60B (Texel)

Left to right: Reserve Champion Dorset ewe, Shereff 115B (fall born),
Furze 9C, Shereff 9C and Heeroma 38C (all January born).

Brien G&L 55A

Brien G&L 55A

Views From The Top

Here are some of our freshly sheared Dorset ewes. We are happy with how the flock came through the winter once again, without any grain.  Our hay wasn’t the best quality, but since we feed with a bale processor that chops the hay and lays it in a row on the ground, the sheep eat the good stuff and leave the stems that don’t have much nutrition.  The stems aren’t totally wasted, because they lay on them for bedding.

Freshly sheared Dorset ewes.

 

This photo is of some of our recently sheared Scottish Blackface ewes at the water trough.

2015 Shearing Day

Yesterday we sheared the flock. Of course, it had to snow the day before….but thankfully they dried off by shearing time.  It went very well.

We had 6 shearers: Lorrie Reed, Laverne Struck, Charles Struck, Russell Eddy, Ampie Esterhuyse, Logan McDermit;
3 wool handlers: Carter Nameth, Jordan Sveinbjornson, Jelaine;
1 wool packer operator: Daylon Schmidt;
1 sheep pusher: Randy.

525 ewes/ewe lambs and 19 rams were shorn in 8 hours!
Thanks to everyone for their help and hard work!

Bringing in the flock for shearing.

525 ewes and ewe lambs waiting to be sheared.

The six shearers keeping busy.

Logan and Laverne shearing two of the Scottish Blackface rams.

Randy, going to get the next bunch of sheep.  He kept the shearing chute full all day.

 

Getting Closer!!

We are really looking forward to our first ever Scotch Mule lambs!  Start date for lambing is March 15, but they could come up to 5 days early.
These are some of our Scottish Blackface ewes, heavy in lamb to our Bluefaced Leicester ram.  We bred the darkest faced SBF ewes to the BFL ram, and the ewes with more white on their faces were bred to our blackest faced SBF ram to lamb in June. So we’ll see what happens! Anxiously waiting…..!!
(Hoping for lots of twin ewe lambs).

Marching Ewes

     This is our group of 250 mostly commercial mature Dorset ewes that will be lambing in June.  We still have a few ewes with a bit of Border Cheviot in them like the one in the left foreground.  Sheep don’t like to walk in deep snow, so they were following the tractor tracks to the fresh hay I had just put out.
February 25 Update:  I shared this photo on Facebook and it went viral all over the world with over 13,000 people reached.  I also shared it on the Weather Network and it became the photo of the day on February 24 as well as the most popular photo with over 31,000 views to date.  Feeling pretty honored!

Feeding Time

We are sure glad for this mild weather and lack of snowfall! We are still able to feed the sheep out in the 160 acre field. We shred the hay on the hilltops to add mulch and fertilizer for the next growing season. It will make the hilltops more productive.
Another bonus with the light snow cover is that the ewes can still do some grazing.

Feeding Time!

January Lambing

Last night, our last winter-lambing ewe had a set of twins.  We had 42 ewes lamb since January 3 and they gave us 79 lambs.  These are all purebred Dorset ewes that were bred to our ranch raised flock sires, “The Tank” (McDermit 1187Y) and McDermit 1110Y.  We are excited to see how they turn out.

More New Sheep!

Last weekend, we took a seven hour drive to Camrose, Alberta to visit Ostara Farm, owned by Danny & Kim Boyco.  They are Scottish Blackface breeders.  We purchased a registered yearling ram, “Ostara Flaithri 32A” (view his pedigree) and a registered four year old ewe, Ostara Ciara 27X (view her pedigree)to add to our Scottish Blackface flock.  I will add a photo of the ewe soon.

Yearling ram, Ostara Flaithri 32A. (Photo credit: Ostara Farm)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our new Bluefaced Leicester yearling ram.

 

 

 

On our way home, we went around by Lucky Lake, SK and purchased our first Bluefaced Leicester ram from Brad Peters.  Now we can start producing the UK famous Scotch Mules!

 

 

 

 

It was a most enjoyable trip!  The fall colors and scenery everywhere were beautiful.  After picking up the BFL ram, we crossed the Diefenbaker Lake on the Riverhurst Ferry which was a first for us.

It is a cable ferry on highway 42, linking the town of Riverhurst on the east side, to Lucky Lake on the west side.The ferry leaves the west side on the half hour and takes about 15 minutes to cross the 1.5 kilometers.  It leaves the east side on the top of every hour and runs 24 hours a day till the lake freezes over, usually in December.

Arriving at the Riverhurst, Saskatchewan ferry.

Out in the middle of Diefenbaker lake on the ferry.

Arriving on the east side of the lake.

The Riverhurst Ferry is Saskatchewan’s largest ferry, with a length of 35.6 metres (117 ft), a width of 14 metres (46 ft), and a weight of 90.7 tonnes. It carries a maximum of 15 cars on each crossing. It is powered by a computer controlled engine and powers a central drive cable. There are three guide cables, two mounted one foot from the left and right sides, and a middle cable running underneath the hull.

“Riverhurstferry2″ by Saskjon – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

New Scottish Blackface Sheep

ANNOUNCING THE ADDITION OF SCOTTISH BLACKFACE SHEEP
TO McDERMIT RANCH!

We recently purchased a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep – 94 ewes and 4 rams.  This beautiful breed originates in the hill country of Scotland.  They are extremely hardy, fantastic mothers, and thrive in tough conditions.  Here is a link to the  Blackface Sheep Breeders’ Association:
http://www.scottish-blackface.co.uk/ 

This year, we will breed most of the ewes to the Scottie ram and some to a Bluefaced Leicester ram to create the
“Scotch Mule”.

Scotch Mule ewes are by far the most popular ewe in the UK.  Here is a link to the Scotch Mule Association in the UK:   http://www.scotchmule.co.uk/

Two year old Scottish Blackface ram.

Scottish Blackface ewes in the morning sun.

 

 

It Is That Time Of Year!

We turned our ranch raised stud rams, “The Tank” and “1110Y” out with two groups of our top Dorset ewes between August 10 and 27 for lambing from January 3 – 20, 2015.  The days are lengthening and the nights cool off nicely.  We had marking harnesses on the rams and it looks like most of the ewes will lamb within the first cycle.   We are looking forward to a nice lamb crop out of these 50 ewes and 2 rams.

Some Of The Fall Breeding Group Of Purebred Dorset Ewes Due To Lamb In January 2015

 

Shearing Day 2014

Yesterday was shearing day at McDermit Ranch!
A HUGE THANK YOU to our family for your help and hard work!  Logan, Nolan & Sarah, Carson & Rebecca, and grandkids Brooklyn, Tyrell, Taylen and Hunter made it the most fun, enjoyable shearing day in 29 years!!!  Missed little Cooper – maybe next year.
Also, thanks to the hardworking shearers – Lorrie Reed, Laverne Struck and Dave Hunter.  I don’t know how you guys do it day in and day out!! Between the 4 shearers (including Logan) they did 345 ewes and 9 rams in less than 8 hours!
The weather co-operated with a nice, sunny, calm day.  However, overnight we we got about 1/4″ of snow but it didn’t get colder than -4C so the sheep were fine.
 (Click on the photos to see them fully)

Snow Drifts

We have had a lot of wind lately, which has created some pretty cool drifts as well as a place for some of the ewes to get shelter behind.  The drifts aren’t so handy to have around the bale stack though.