Our ewe gave birth to lamb triplets… but there was a bigger shock to come
DOTTY the Dorset ewe delivered a shock to her owners — when she gave birth to triplets by three different dads.
She fell pregnant after getting saucy on the same day with a Jacob ram and two Herdwicks.
Dotty would normally be bred with a fellow pedigree Dorset but had spent a day with the rest of farmer Nathan Brickwood’s mixed flock while he mended fences.
Nathan, 27, said: “The first one popped out and was brown and white — and Dorsets are not brown.
“My first thought was, ‘How on earth did that happen?’
“When she went on to birth the second lamb we were even more shocked as this one was a black spotty one and a different breed altogether. Then came another.
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“I thought, ‘Ey-up, she’s had a party here’.
“They were only together for just over a day and we thought it would be okay and took the chance. We certainly didn’t expect this to happen.
“Obviously when Dotty was in the field she took full advantage.”
Nathan, of Rand Farm in Market Rasen, Lincs, said five-year-old Dotty gave birth in December.
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He had to check his notes to work out exactly what had happened the previous July.
He added: “We’ve got around 50 sheep at the farm and have never seen anything like this before.”
Vet Molly McKay said multiple births were not uncommon with sheep.
She said: “They want to ensure they have the greatest chance of lambs so they ovulate multiple times.
“It is quite normal for sheep to have two.”
Both can have different dads, but it is usually difficult to tell because most farms keep sheep from only one breed.
A dalliance with two rams is known as heteropaternal superfecundation.
Molly added: “The research shows that about 30 per cent of twins and about 50 per cent of triplets are sired from more than one dad.”
