Veronica Verweij, who breeds sheep near Hanover, Ontario, in Canada, told the Irish Farmers Journal that the seven-year-old ewe had quadruplets last year and six lambs in 2016.

She has taken five of this year's lambs off their mother and is feeding them with an automatic feeder, which mixes small amounts of milk replacer on demand when they go to drink.

"Finn sheep do tend to have litters of lambs, but they're not always a great thing to have," said Veronica. When they are too small, they take a lot of effort to keep alive. In this case, the seven lambs ranged from 3.75lb to 7.5lb in weight, totalling 39.25lb.

Rare breeds

Veronica and her husband John ran a 500-ewe commercial flock but sold it due to illness five years ago. They now keep 78 ewes and have specialised in rare breeds and selecting for wool. They have recently added Wensleydales, for which they are one of only two registered breeders in Canada.

Veronica said that Finns were introduced into Canada in the 1960s but fell out of interest and lost their genetic diversity. Using rams from the US, she sells Finn breeding stock to farmers interested in increasing prolificacy.

This week's lambings are the best advertisement: "We had a litter of five an hour or two after this one," she said.

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