Is this the biggest lamb ever born here?
A Sligo farmer received a huge shock on Wednesday afternoon when his sheep gave birth to a “monster” of a lamb.
Kieran Murphy, whose family have a tradition of rearing sheep, was expecting the pregnant ewe to give birth to twins given her size.
So he was shocked last week when his sheep gave birth to a lamb weighing 8.5 kilos, almost twice the average weight of a lamb. A lamb usually weighs on average four/ four and a half kilos.
“The vet couldn’t get over the size of the lamb,” Kieran Murphy told The Sligo Champion.
“I couldn’t get over it. I thought it was going to be twins and then this monster appeared,” he added.
This was the first lamb born to this sheep, who Mr. Murphy said is “flying it” since.
This lamb could very well be one of, if not the, biggest born in the Republic of Ireland.
The biggest born in the UK weighed nearly 10 kilos and was born on a farm in Armagh.
Mr. Murphy’s father has been farming all his life, over 60 years, and he said he has never seen anything like this in his life.
The Murphys usually welcome between 20 and 30 newborn lambs on their Ballygawley farm each year, and have so far seen 16 lambs born this spring.
There are more to come, however, as the Murphys are expecting more lambs than they would usually.