THE birth of the spring lamb will be a welcome sight for many beleaguered farmers, but for smallholder Martin Myers there was cause to celebrate four times over.

Quads were born to one of the Mule sheep on his smallholding at Thornton le Beans, near Northallerton, and, unusually, all four have survived and are now flourishing.

Foot-and-mouth restrictions last year forced Mr Myers and his wife, Christine, to cut their number of sheep from 35 to ten, as they were running out of grazing land. And now, as well as the quads, they have also seen the birth of triplets to one of those ten.

Since the crisis, the Myers' have also bought five sheep which are not due to lamb until April.

Mr Myers, an electrician, who has been keeping sheep for about 14 years, said: "The ten sheep we kept from the old lot have done very well for us. It's the first time we have had quads in the flock."