Scottish sheep farmer Andrew Morgan cannot believe his luck, after discovering one of his homebred Suffolk-cross ewes gave birth to eight live lambs.

The four-year-old ewe, which was bred to a Texel ram, had been scanned back in January and was believed to be carrying four lambs.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Andrew said: “Basically, my son-in-law, who was lambing the ewe, put his hand in and after four lambs were delivered, he could still feel another lamb and then it just kept going!

“We keep over 1,000 ewes here on our our farm. We are a commercial flock based in southeast Scotland.

“One lamb died last night, we left three lambs with the mother, but she lay on one overnight.”

The lambs just kept coming.

World record

“The lambs are doing well and have started feeding on a bucket feeder. We looked it up and apparently a ewe giving birth to seven lambs is the British record, but there is a world record of eight lambs, according to people who have looked it up,” said Andrew.

“Two or three people have emailed me saying this is the situation, so apparently the ewe giving birth to eight lambs equals the world record.”