Little lambs a lucky find

A newborn lamb missing for three days was found fit and well after being buried in a bale of hay.

The agriculture programme leader at Brackenhurst campus of Nottingham Trent University, Mr Dominic Henegan, called the baby lamb Lucky after it survived so long without food.

The black lamb is one of two born to a chocolate-coloured Suffolk cross in the first week of the month.

Mr Henegan realised the week-old lamb was missing when he returned to work after a day off and assumed it had been taken by a fox.

“I checked the other lambs and found that there were no others missing which was strange because normally a fox would take more than one,” he said.

Two days later students were asked to muck out the yard because lambing had nearly finished.

Mr Henegan said one of their jobs was to clear the remnants of a big bale of hay. A loader was used to lift the hay but it started tipping off so the student was told to try again.

“In the silence before he started again another student heard a plaintive bleat coming from the heap,” Mr Henegan said.

“He dived in and found the missing black lamb. I can only think that she had been sleeping at the foot of the bale, which then collapsed.

“The lamb was buried for at least two days and maybe three. She was very warm as the hay acted as a duvet.”

Mr Henegan said the lamb was bright and alert, but a bit weak, and was taken outside to its mother and sister.

Mr Henegan said the lamb immediately fed from its mother with no problem.

“No one would think that she had been trapped under a pile of hay for three days,” Mr Henegan said.