AN ELDERLY farming couple have been heartbroken by the theft of their new batch of breeding lambs from Llanvihangel Crucorney reports PAUL JAMES.

Veteran farmers Tom and Dora Watkins lost ten yearling beulah ewe lambs from a field at Little Penny Park.

It’s feared rustlers may have taken them away. Police have been alerted.

Desperate searches around the immediate area failed to find any trace of the flock who were said to be ‘very tame.’

The lambs were brought in specially to introduce new blood into the couple’s stock.

They vanished from their field next to the farm some time between Friday, October 9 and the following Sunday.

Family friend Angela Harvey said, “They are completely distraught. They have both been unnerved by what’s happened.”

She revealed how she and her daughter Anna had walked miles around local lanes to see if there was any sign of the sheep straying through an open gate.

“We walked every nook and cranny and then drove along the roads looking further afield - but to no avail unfortunately,” said Angela.

She added, “Tom has even talked of giving up. It’s the shock of something like this happening to him. He is always helping other people.”

Matters had not been helped by the recent death of his rescue sheepdog Gyp who died just a fortnight earlier at the age of 14.

Anyone with information about the lambs’ whereabouts is urged to contact police on 101.