A Zwartbles-cross ewe scanned as carrying triplet lambs surprised Newport, Co Mayo, farmer Alan Mulchrone by giving birth to a crop of no fewer than five healthy lambs on Friday.
Mulchrone said that he was content to see that the ewe had three lambs, only to return a few hours later to find that another two lambs had materialised inside the pen.
“I had checked her to make sure that it was just the three before going back inside because I had a ewe scanned for triplets before that ended up having four lambs, so I don’t know where she managed to hide the last two,” Mulchrone told to the Irish Farmers Journal.
“They are all healthy and strong - there was two that were a bit lighter than the rest, but you couldn’t call them weak at all.”
The ewe had three Texel-cross ewe lambs and two ram lambs and two lambs have been since fostered on to other ewes.
“I left her with three and I think she can rear three. The same ewe reared triplets two years ago and she has plenty of milk this year too.”
Jason Mulchrone keeps a watchful eye on the ewe and her crop of five lambs.
Around half of the flock of just over 30 ewes was lambed last weekend and the remainder are to lamb 17 or 18 days later.
The entry into sheep and the decision to go with the relatively-uncommon Zwartbles was driven by Alan’s 10-year-old sheep-fanatic son Jason.
“We had a black lamb one year and Jason took a great interest in it. There is novelty in the Zwartbles with the colours being something different,” Mulchrone said.
“We would be more into cattle now than sheep, with more cows than ewes, but my son Jason is really sheep mad. My daughter Kate and younger son Conor have a great interest in the farm too, so we are never short on help.
"He lets the ewes out in the morning and runs them back in for the evening. I suppose Jason would be the proper sheep farmer in the house."
Mulchrone said that the high prolificacy seen with quintuplet lambs was not entirely out of the ordinary for the flock.
There had been a set of healthy quadruplet lambs last year, which had all been reared on the ewe that had them.
“I mentioned the five lambs to a couple of farmers around the area who would be familiar with sheep. It was only talking to them over the past few days that I realised how rare it must be.”
A Zwartbles-cross ewe scanned as carrying triplet lambs surprised Newport, Co Mayo, farmer Alan Mulchrone by giving birth to a crop of no fewer than five healthy lambs on Friday.
Mulchrone said that he was content to see that the ewe had three lambs, only to return a few hours later to find that another two lambs had materialised inside the pen.
“I had checked her to make sure that it was just the three before going back inside because I had a ewe scanned for triplets before that ended up having four lambs, so I don’t know where she managed to hide the last two,” Mulchrone told to the Irish Farmers Journal.
“They are all healthy and strong - there was two that were a bit lighter than the rest, but you couldn’t call them weak at all.”
The ewe had three Texel-cross ewe lambs and two ram lambs and two lambs have been since fostered on to other ewes.
“I left her with three and I think she can rear three. The same ewe reared triplets two years ago and she has plenty of milk this year too.”
Jason Mulchrone keeps a watchful eye on the ewe and her crop of five lambs.
Around half of the flock of just over 30 ewes was lambed last weekend and the remainder are to lamb 17 or 18 days later.
The entry into sheep and the decision to go with the relatively-uncommon Zwartbles was driven by Alan’s 10-year-old sheep-fanatic son Jason.
“We had a black lamb one year and Jason took a great interest in it. There is novelty in the Zwartbles with the colours being something different,” Mulchrone said.
“We would be more into cattle now than sheep, with more cows than ewes, but my son Jason is really sheep mad. My daughter Kate and younger son Conor have a great interest in the farm too, so we are never short on help.
"He lets the ewes out in the morning and runs them back in for the evening. I suppose Jason would be the proper sheep farmer in the house."
Mulchrone said that the high prolificacy seen with quintuplet lambs was not entirely out of the ordinary for the flock.
There had been a set of healthy quadruplet lambs last year, which had all been reared on the ewe that had them.
“I mentioned the five lambs to a couple of farmers around the area who would be familiar with sheep. It was only talking to them over the past few days that I realised how rare it must be.”
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