December 2022 to April 2023 Updates

Posted on April 13, 2023 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

It’s been quite awhile since I have posted on our website. I tend to post on Facebook more and forget to update the website. Here are a few photos and happenings that have gone on over the winter.

In December, we were surprised, humbled and happy to be among the finalists in the All Canada GenOvis Recognition Awards 2022 – maternal breed category!
We placed 3rd!

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We added a new pup to our pack in January. His name is Kozan and he was 4 months old when we brought him home from Manitoba. He is settling in nicely.

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We had a very mild January this year, which was so nice for lambing about 50 ewes.
We had turned the rams out for 1 week last August and just lambed for 11 days.

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Our next group of ewes lambed from March 14 to April 1. We were very happy with a drop of 200%.***************************************************************************************************
The January lambs are coming along nicely. We will be taking their 100 day weights on April 20. There are some like this one that stand out.

Winter Lambing 2020

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

Our December/January lambing group is done!
It has been a busy 25 days with 170 ewes giving birth to 326 lambs for an average drop of 192%. This is our best drop ever with these Dorset ewes in 14 years, so we are really happy about that.

Trying to get comfortable by sitting like a dog!

One of our two sets of quads this year, weighing 9, 9, 10, and 12 pounds. The ewe, McDermit 272Z, is eight years old.

The bucket fed lambs, full and content.

The matriarch of the flock, 11 year old “943″ gave us a beautiful set of twin ram lambs.

The -30C weather didn’t bother the 2 week old lambs. They were quite comfortable, burrowed into the fluffy straw in the lean-to.

March Lambing 2019

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

After a record cold February, we are glad to have the weather turn warmer for our March lambing group. We started on the 1st and are in full swing, with over 125 lambs on the ground so far. They are strong, healthy lambs.

Pregnant ewes enjoying the warm, sunny day.

The first lamb, that 6 year old grandson, Hunter has seen born. (That he remembers, anyway).

503 and her triplets. This lamb always gets on her back whenever she lies down.
Photo credits: Laurie Genik

January Born Lambs

Posted on February 8, 2019 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

Even though it’s a lot of work, and we lose lots of sleep doing night checks in the dead of winter, it’s worth it when we can watch beautiful, healthy lambs running around.
We still find them cute even after 33 years!
These are some of our January born purebred polled Dorset lambs. We are looking forward to seeing how they turn out.

2019 Lambing Season

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

It’s January, which means lots of new Dorset lambs are being born!
We used three different sires on three groups of registered ewes and are really liking what we see!

Newborn Dorset lambs.

Registered Dorset ewes waiting to lamb.

Spring Lambing In The New Barn

Posted on April 29, 2018 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

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.

Spring Lambing 2017

Posted on May 10, 2017 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

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.

: 3/4 Bluefaced Leicester day old ram lamb.

Scotch Mule ewe lamb.

Twin Blackface ewe lambs.

Dorset lamb.

New “Ewe Haul”

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

We recently purchased a “Ewe Haul” from Zubot Welding. It has come in very handy already. Our grandkids, Taylen (3), Hunter (2 1/2) and Tyrell (5) wanted to try it out when they visited today, so we went for a little spin around the lambing pasture.
Zubot Welding has a great line up of sheep and goat equipment. Visit their website:
www.zubotwelding.com

Posing Ram Lamb

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

This ram lamb was strutting around today, so I whipped out my iphone and got a picture of him.
The March/April born lambs are doing very well.

933′s twin ram lamb at 3 weeks old.

Getting Closer!!

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

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).

January Lambing

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

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.

: McDermit 073X with her twins at 18 days old. Born Jan. 3/15

: McDermit 203Z with her day old set of twins born. Jan. 20/15.

Spring Lambs

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

Spring lambing is just about wrapped up for this year. We have 7 ewes left to go. It’s a good idea to carry a camera in your pocket when you go check on the lambs. They can be quite entertaining!

One Ewe Left To Lamb

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

We just have one ewe left to lamb for the winter lambing group.
Come on #802! Git ‘er done!
The next lambing group will start in April. Looking forward to the warmer weather. It sure has been a cold winter.

McDermit 802U Waiting To Have Her Lambs

Lamb Antics

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

Busy, busy – we have had 101 lambs born in the last 10 days! This young ewe lamb was standing on her mother’s back when the ewe stood up. She stayed there for about 5 minutes, trying to figure out how to get down. She finally got the courage to jump off, lol.

Lamb Gymnastics!

Some of the new lambs soaking up the sun in the barn doorway.

Lambing Time

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

We have a new crop of purebred Dorset lambs on the ground! The ewes started lambing around Christmas time so it has been pretty busy around here. Some of the weather has been extremely cold ~ like -35C ~ and the wind chill made it feel like -50C! It makes for lots of trips to the barn to check and bring new lambs into the nursery.

We had our family come for the weekend a couple of weeks ago, and our little grandkids, Brooklyn – 4, Tyrell – 3, and Taylen – 2 enjoyed feeding the bottle lambs.

: Brooklyn

: Tyrell

: Taylen

We are excited to see how this year’s lamb crop turns out. We used 3 new rams aside from the Shaw ram, who is a proven sire. There are some very promising lambs again this year. We will have a pen of top quality ram lambs on offer by May so check back with us later for updates and pictures!

Spring News

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

Well, spring FINALLY arrived (about a month late)! So life has been very busy here on the Ranch. We have been pounding posts for more cross fencing…..just wrapped up spring lambing….. got pictures taken and posted on the website of some of the January ram lambs that we are offering for sale…..sheared the flock yesterday….. and hauled 9 big bags of the wool to the collection depot. Now we will be getting ready for our trip to Barriere, British Columbia for the 2013 All Canada Classic sheep show and sale at the end of this month.

Below are photos of some of the January born ram lambs. See our “2013 Rams For Sale” page for more photos and information.

The Fall-Born Lambs Have Arrived!

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

The fall-born lambs arrived between September 29 and October 10. It was beautiful weather and they are thriving. Their mothers had lambed back in January…. were weaned in March…. and rebred at the end of April/first part of May. One of these “super-ewes” as we call them, is 10 years old! The lambs are sired by herdsire, Shaw DAE 09W.

Some of the lambs basking in the morning sun.

May Lambing

Posted on May 27, 2012 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

Spring lambing is almost done. We started on May 1 and the weather has had its ups and downs. Lots of cold, windy, rainy days with a few nice sunny days here and there. The lambs are doing well and the ewes are milking like crazy on the lush new grass and alfalfa. We feed our ewes “Silent Herder” mineral in the summertime, which prevents bloat. We start them on it 2 weeks before they go out on the alfalfa and they seem to know when they need to eat some. We haven’t lost anything to bloat since we started using this mineral.

The llama and her cria are out in the pasture with the ewes and lambs. The cria is quite amusing to watch when he gets playing and running around.

Winter Lambing Is Complete

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

Young Lamb On The Run

The last ewe lambed today, so our winter lambing is finished. We had a very satisfactory drop – 6 sets of triplets, 37 sets of twins and 11 singles. 104 lambs out of 55 ewes! Other than a handful of cold days and nights, the weather was very mild for this time of year. The big group is due to start lambing May 5.

Winter Lambing

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Randy & Jelaine McDermit

#492 With Her Twins - A Ewe Lamb And A Ram Lamb.

Winter lambing is well underway and the weather has been fantastic! We had a small group of 20 purebred Dorset ewes lamb in December/January and now we are lambing out another group of 30. The new lambs are doing well, bouncing around and playing. When they get tired, they enjoy soaking up the sun on these beautiful days.

#923 With Brand New Triplet Ram Lambs.

We will be selecting some of the top ram lambs and ewe lambs from the Dec/Jan group to go to the Grasslands Sale in Drake, SK in July.

Check back often for more pictures and updates!

McDermit Ranch

Southey, Saskatchewan, Canada
Dorset Sheep

Category Archives: Lambing Time