Six lambs to single ewe 'one-in-a-million'

SIX-IN-A-MILLION: Greytown farmers Rex and Pam Saywell were stunned on the opening day of spring to find one of their milking ewes - at one-in-a-million odds - had given birth to six healthy lambs. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

Six spring lambs born Tuesday on a Greytown farm to a single ewe was a one-in-a-million event, says a Massey University lecturer on sheep production.

Dr Lydia Cranston said the successful birth and exceptional survival of the east Fresian lambs - at the Greytown farm of Rex and Pam Saywell on the first day of spring - could be put down to the breed, the optimal body condition of the ewe, and the feed and feeding times.

"I've never heard of that in my lifetime or career. It would be one-in-a-million for sure, pretty dramatic, particularly with the survival."

Dr Cranston said the east Fresian breed was known for its fertility and "with a more fecund breed you can get four or five, which is getting up there, but I think to have six is amazing, especially in New Zealand conditions when they're outside and that".

"I've heard of five before in a straight bred Finn flock, but not six. That is rare," Dr Cranston said.

Mr Saywell said the six lambs, four rams and two ewes, had arrived after he isolated the pregnant ewe earlier the same day. A chill easterly wind was blowing, outside temperatures had plummeted, and rain was pouring down.

"I had a mob of about 40. They all like lambing when it rains and I could see she was getting restless. So I put her out and couldn't believe it when I came back," he said.

"There was a pile of them there on the ground. It was raining, horrible and cold, and they were all down. So I put them in to a horse float and fed them all a little colostrum."

He said it was the third breeding season for the mother ewe that had last year thrown twins.

Mr Saywell had been farming in the Greytown district for the past 14 years, he said, and about four years ago had planned to convert from dairy to milking sheep, going as far as constructing a 36-bale rotary milking shed for sheep before hitting significant obstacles with production certification.

He today had about 100 animals after selling most of his flock to Landcorp and shifting to beef and "breeding milking sheep as a sideline".

Two other sheep in his flock had thrown four lambs apiece already this season, he said, and twins and triplets were not infrequent with the mob he had been running on his property, including the pet sheep and lambs the couple also keep.

"If I hadn't picked them up and fed them, the six lambs probably wouldn't have all made it. They have a good mother too, even though she hasn't been a pet. They're a friendly breed but also with milking sheep, they have quite big teats and the lambs sometimes can't feed. So I carry a bottle with me just in case."

Mrs Saywell, who with her husband has six adult children, said she welcomes the woolly sextuplets and the bottle-feeding duties.

"We have six children - who came one at a time - now we have six more babies. This is special."