Quintuplet Lambs Beat The Odds

Quintuplet Lambs Beat The Odds AG WORLD Sheep producers say a good ewe will almost always have twin lambs in any given year But the odds of having quintuplets are about 1 in a million Kathy Chinderle of Ash Grove Missouri beat those odds earlier this year when a 4-year-old ewe on her farm gave birth to 5 lambs and all of them survived Three of them are females and 2 are males The smallest weighed only 8 oz but all of them were healthy at birth Chinderle says making sure all 5 of the lambs received colostrum from their mother within an hour of their birth was key to their survival Chinderle’s proud mama ewe whom she named Ethel has produced triplets the past 2 years “I don’t want to re-name her but I’ve thought maybe we should call her Fertile Myrtle rather than Ethel ” When Chinderle realized she had 5 healthy lambs from Ethel in 2016 her first call was to the local feed store to find a high quality milk replacer That’s because she knew one ewe couldn’t possibly feed 5 lambs The store manager suggested Ultra Fresh® Optimum lamb milk replacer which is a formulation that closely compares to ewe milk Tests done at Cornell University comparing lambs on ewe milk and Ultra Fresh have shown that the milk replacer product provides equal nutrition and a slightly higher growth rate Chinderle says the lambs did great on the formula Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Kathy Chinderle 3614 N Farm Road 47 Ash Grove Greene County Missouri 65604

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