We all know there's a scramble to find out who is the first-born baby in Ireland, so this year we thought we'd do things a little differently and find out where the first births were on Irish farms.

The first birth registered (with us!) was in Co Tipperary:

Welcome to the world, baby girl. Born at 12.03am on the Murphy farm, this Friesian heifer was the first calf of 2018.

Sired by FR2385, (IG) NEXTGEN YKG CANDY 593 and born to a fourth-calver, the heifer hit the ground with an EBI of €202.

Our second birth of 2018 was this set of Charollais twins, born at 12.05 on Eugene O’Sullivan’s farm, although there is some speculation that one was born in 2017 and the other in 2018.

Student Therese Pyne helped farmer Willie Pyne of Kilmaley, Co Clare, deliver a pedigree Charolais bull just after midnight. Therese is studying Ag Science for the Leaving Cert.

Sean Mannion had a double whammy in the labour ward, with two sets of triplets on his farm in Abbeyknockmoy, Tuam, Co Galway, during the night. The first, which came at 12.32, were Suffolk cross.

The second set of triplets came at 6.30am. It was a long night!

UPDATE: Séan Mannion's second set of triplets has now turned into quadruplets. While the sheep was scanned for three lambs, she just had a fourth, who popped out three hours later.

Derek Middleton watched the birth of one of the first calves in the land from the comfort of hs home via a web camera.

The bull calf by Greenhills was born to a Wind Brook Gillette heifer. Looking at the time stamp, we reckon he's the first calf in Bailieboro, Co Cavan. The bull has been christened Cherrydale Adam.

This is Rose, a pedigree Hereford cow from John O'Heney's herd in west Tipperary.

She calved unassisted at midnight, dropping a heifer calf sired by Gageboro Morgan from Dovea Genetics. Rose had a calving interval of 333 days.

Patrick Keown had triplet lambs on his farm in Belleek, Co Fermanagh. They were born at 12:10pm.