A Tyrone farmer lost several lambs last week when a sudden burst of rain caused flash flooding.
David Kenwell was dosing cattle on Wednesday evening at 7.30pm at his farm in Dromore when he got a call from a neighbour alerting him that ones of his fields was rapidly flooding.
Mr Kenwell told the Farmers Journal that at first he didn’t believe his neighbour as where he was, a mile away, the sun was shining.
However, he says when he arrived on the scene, it was “unbelieveable....like something out of a horror movie.”
The water was up to four feet deep in parts of the field. The 30 ewes and 50 lambs had gathered about in three batches.
Mr Kenwell says he thinks have must have been extrememly heavy rain on higher ground as water was pouring off the road into the field while and adjacent river also burst its banks.
A neighbour cut a fence to let some of the sheep escape over his silage ground into another field, while Mr Kenwell drove a tractor and cattle trailer into the field to rescue the remaining sheep. However, as some sheep tried to swim through the flood water to reach safer ground, their lambs were unable to cope with the currents and were washed away.
Speaking to the Farmers Journal on Tuesday, Mr Kenwell said that he would have to sort his sheep back from his neighbour’s flock before he knew what his exact losses were, but he estimates he lost approximately five or six lambs.
He said that the field in question has only flooded twice in his lifetime and it was shocking to be in it up to his waist in water in the month of May.
He added that if it had not been for the assistance of his neighbours he could have lost all his flock.
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