The full extent of sheep losses due to Storm Emma will remain unclear for some time, as hill sheep farmers are still not able to access their flocks.

Ewes and lambs have been lost in sheds on lowland farms, some due to snow blowing in on the shed and others due to the shed collapsing on them. The number of out-wintered sheep lost on the hills is not yet known.

“There will be losses but there is no real handle on it yet,” Wicklow sheep farmer Pat Dunne told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“But the big problem could still be ahead of us. There will be big losses in the lamb crop. Heavily pregnant ewes under pressure could abort their lambs and often after a hunger like that the ewes might produce no milk for the lambs that are born.”

IFA hill sheep chairman Flor McCarthy said that while the snow did not cause many losses in Co Kerry, ewes had lost condition significantly in the past week.

Farmer Tony Day and partner Tina Mullane lost 20 ewes and 30 lambs when the shed collapsed on them in Whitegate, Co Cork.

Some farmers were lucky to rescue sheep caught in snow drifts.

Ashley O’Reilly from Donard, Co Wicklow, spent four hours digging through snow to rescue nine hoggets buried in a drift 7ft high and 15ft deep. O’Reilly, his father and a neighbour dug them out using shovels and the bucket of the tractor.

In Co Roscommon, Mark Donnelly rescued hoggets owned by his uncle Michael Miley. They were buried in a drift against a wall and were breathing through a small blow hole in the snow.