A Belclare ewe on the farm of Carlow IFA chair John Nolan gave birth to six healthy lambs on Thursday last week.

IFA Carlow chair John Nolan with his ewe and her six ewe lambs. / John Nolan

The three-year-old ewe had been scanned for quads, but was discovered by the farmer after delivering five lambs.

Delighted with what he thought were the lively quintuplets, Nolan, who farms 280 March- and April-lambing mainly Suffolk- and Cheviot-cross ewes at Mount Aaron, near Tullow, Co Carlow, put them and their mother in a lambing pen.

However, he was even more surprised when half an hour later the ewe delivered a healthy sixth lamb.

Remarkably, all six lambs are ewe lambs. The sextuplets were sired by a Charollais ram.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Cullen said: “They’re all decent size. Two of them are very good and the other four were still decent lambs.

“All six survived. We’ve left her with two and we’ve sold the others as pets,” he said.

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