A Co Antrim farmer has recalled how he had to battle the elements to rescue the animals after torrential rain battered Northern Ireland during Storm Chandra.
Graham Wallace was battling flood waters at his Ballymena-based farm, which houses around 150 cattle, when he got word that his flock was in trouble.
Around 20 of his sheep were grazing at the bottom of Slemish before they were caught in the downpour.
“When the phone call came we were dealing with a flooding farm here, so it was just one of them days,” Graham explained. “I just dropped everything and ran over there. There was a concrete lane that takes you down in that direction, and halfway down that I got no farther, [so] I started walking down through the water.
“I saw the sheep at a distance, they were right at the riverbank, probably the only one piece of riverbank that hadn’t submerged.”
A separate flock of sheep were rescued in Ballymena (Kevin Scott)
After assessing the situation, Graham and his loyal sheepdog were able to guide the flock out of danger through one of the gates.
He added: “I wasn’t going to put my life at risk for them, or my dog’s life at risk, but sort of assessed the situation, and worked a route through using bits of the ground that were higher than others.
“I was never in any deeper than knee-high, but I was able to get a route through. We’re sort of on the side of a hill, and all the water comes off the hills and comes down through the yard so it caused a bit of havoc.
“The wind was very strong at the time too, and I had to get everything closed up.”
It wasn’t the first time adverse weather has put Graham’s flock in the spotlight. During heavy snow showers in 2013, a number of his sheep were trapped in deep snow for a number of days.
“We were in The Sun, we were in The Mirror — we made the news in Australia, somebody said,” Graham recalled.
Meanwhile, a second flock of sheep on another farm near Ballymena also became trapped in deep waters in a flooded field in the Glenwherry area.
Firefighters were called to the incident at around 10am on Tuesday.
The specialist rescue team from Central Fire Station was sent along with two appliances from Ballymena fire station, and one animal rescue team from Omagh fire station attended.
Sheep stuck in flood water outside Ballymena
Advice was given to the farmer before leaving the scene at around 1.40pm as the water levels were too high to attempt a rescue operation.
The farmer was subsequently able to lead them to safety after the waters subsided at around 5.30pm.
A spokesperson for the NI Fire and Rescue Service said that they received 98 calls relating to Storm Chandra “with fire crews mobilising to 58 incidents”.