A 17-year-old ewe has successfully had her sixteenth lamb, according to her owner Ray Gunning from Portacloy, Co Mayo.

"She’s a 17-year-old Suffolk. I originally got her as a pet lamb for my daughter when she was 10," Gunning told the Irish Farmers Journal.

"We keep about 125 sheep, but I've never heard of one living to 17, let alone having a healthy lamb!"

The ewe has been called Betty Boo by Gunning's daughter, and the family believe it'll be Betty's last lamb on the farm.

Betty Boo and her lamb.

"The ewe has been mollycoddled all her life, there's no way I'll be allowed to cull her. She doesn't have any teeth left but we give her special feed and she's housed every winter," Gunning said.

"We were hoping she would have a ewe lamb because we think this will be her last lamb, but she had a ram lamb. Her ram lambs always sell very well for me for breeding."

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