Category Archives: Lambs

December 2022 to April 2023 Updates

Posted on by
Fb-Button

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!

****************************************************************************************************
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.

***************************************************************************************************
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.

***************************************************************************************************
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 by
Fb-Button

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.

May Happenings

Posted on by
Fb-Button

We had a very busy and productive day on Saturday.
We weaned, weighed, vaccinated, dewormed and Vetoliced the 200+ March born lambs. Then sorted them into ram lamb and ewe lamb pens.
We also mouthed, bagged and Vetoliced the ewes and dewormed them as needed.

Tonight, I finally got our entries done for the All Canada Classic Show & Sale in Humboldt in July. I am bad for leaving things like that to the last minute because I have hard time deciding what to take.
Here is the ad I made for the catalogue. The rams in the photo are some of our stud rams.

Ram Lamb "McDermit 90G"

Posted on by
Fb-Button

Today we took the 100 day weights for our January born Dorset lambs.
We really like how this twin born ram lamb is turning out. At 101 days old, he weighs 114 lbs. He gained 42 lbs since he was weaned 28 days ago. That’s an average daily gain of 1.5 lbs!
He is sired by McDermit 77E (see pedigree) and will be staying on the ranch to go on some ewes here.
If you are needing a quality Dorset ram, contact us. We have a pen of thick, wide, deep, long and correct ram lambs.
The pen of 48 ram lambs averaged 1.12 ADG in the 28 days since weaning, including the triplets and milk replacer fed ram lambs.

Watch a short video of McDermit 90G here.  The link will take you to our Facebook page, so hit the back button on your browser to come back to this post:
https://www.facebook.com/mcdermitranch/videos/325736638090559/

 

March Lambing 2019

Posted on by
Fb-Button

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 by
Fb-Button

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.Five day old Dorset lambs.
1 1/2 week old Dorset lambs.

Spring Lambing 2017

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

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.

Autumn is here!

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

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.

 

Shipping Lambs

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

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.

January Born Dorset Lambs

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

Here are a few of our January born purebred Dorset lambs. We weaned, weighed and 8-wayed them this weekend. Some of them could hardly get into the creep area anymore.
We will be consigning some lambs to the All Canada Sheep Classic Show & Sale in Winnipeg this June, as well as to the SSBA Annual  Summer Show & Sale in Prince  Albert, SK in July.
Check back to our website for more pictures and information on the lambs, as it becomes available.
Click on the photos to enlarge them.

Getting Closer!!

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

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 by
1
Fb-Button

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.

Thanksgiving 2014

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

We had a very enjoyable weekend with our family!  Our five grandkids had fun on the farm with the pet lamb, Snowflake, helping with chores and playing with the other farm animals.

The guys went moose hunting for the first time and brought home a cow that dressed 500 lbs so we will have lots of meat to share with all the families!  We also do a lot of deer hunting.  So with the lamb we raise and consume, we feel fortunate to be eating the best tasting and healthiest meat there is!

Randy, Nolan and Sarah also went bird hunting with Nolan’s German Short-haired Pointer, Tikka and got a Sharptail Grouse.  Another new sport for our family.

Spring Lambs

Posted on by
Reply
Fb-Button

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!