A Tasman farmer got the shock of her life when a labouring ewe surprised her with a fifth lamb on a freezing night last week.
Alison White, a lifelong farmer now running a hobby farm in Pigeon Valley southwest of Nelson, delivered an extraordinarily rare set of quintuplet lambs last Thursday entirely on her own, in the dark, during a snow flurry.
She told 1News she had only ever had one set of quadruplets before and got a "real surprise" when the ewe got into trouble.
"She'd had one and obviously needed help with the next ones. They weren't coming out properly."
As she pulled the lambs free, White counted four but something told her to check again.
"I just could not believe it when I reached in - I didn't know if it was a lamb to start with, it was so far back. Pulled out a fifth one. I was absolutely stunned."
The whole delivery was done in minutes, though the second lamb took longer because it was poorly positioned.
Once the five were out, White fetched a box, left one lamb with the ewe, which had no milk on one side at that stage, and carried the other four home and gave them colostrum.
One of the lambs had since died of a bacterial infection.
The ewe, about five years old and predominantly Romney with possibly a bit of Poll Dorset, had triplets last year. White said carrying the weight of five lambs had taken its toll.
"She's recovered now and she's feeding one lamb really well, but I haven't put the others back on her."
Even seasoned locals were stunned. White said her cousin, who owns a Town and Country Vets, had never heard of five before - nor had other farmers she knew.
"I Googled it and discovered that there had been some in recent years, just from memory I think it was 2018, 2022," she said.
"They didn't all survive. One lot may have."
The survivors already have names. White's two-year-old grandson will take the little ram lamb - possibly to be called Bob - while the ewe lambs are Holly, Polly and Dolly.
Her grandchildren are set to be hands-on with the rearing, taking a separate set of quads born the night before, and one of them will raise the ram lamb from the quins.
She said the sheep had been in prime condition heading into mating.
"Before the rams were put out, there was a lot of feed around, so the sheep were in really good condition," she said.
White, who has farmed all her life, said she once ran about 600 sheep and milking cows alongside her father, but now keeps just a small flock.
"It's just rare, and amazing," she said.
SHARE ME