Multiple lamb births are thought to be on the up this lambing season, in particular quintuplets and one Donegal farmer was left surprised last Thursday when a ewe, who had been scanned for quadruplets, gave birth to five lambs.

The quintuplets were born on the farm of Dominic McGoary, a suckler and sheep farmer in Ballydermot in Ballintra.

Martin Gallagher, a family friend, told the Irish Farmers Journal all five are doing good.

“The lambs are flying and doing really well. Two have now been adopted to on to other ewes and the mother is perfect as well.”

The farm has had lots of triplet lambs before and some quadruplets but never five, Martin said.

Flocks that buck the trend

In general, however, multiple birth lambs are getting rarer this season.

Michael Gottsein, head of the sheep programme at Teagasc said in his experience, it has been the opposite of increased multiple births this year.

“In actual fact, the litter size across all of the sheep BETTER farms is back by about 0.1 to 0.15 on previous years.

“Having said that, there are always flocks that buck the trend, and I have heard reports of individual prolific flocks that have scanned very well.”

On quintuplets, Michael said he had no indication numbers were up and that generally, they are very rare.

“Quintuplets are mostly confined to a very small percentage in highly prolific flocks or flocks that have been synchronised and have had ovulation rate increased with the aid of PMSG.”

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