A total of 338 lambs have been stolen from a single farm in the UK, according to the East Anglian Daily Times.

The theft reportedly took place between Thursday, December 21 and Tuesday, January 9.

The lambs are understood to have been taken from farmland in Friston near Saxmundham, the local publication added.

An appeal for information has been issued by Suffolk police for anyone who may have seen people acting suspiciously in the area during the outlined time-frame.

Livestock theft

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine recently revealed information on the number of cattle stolen in 2017.

Unlike cattle, there is no requirement for farmers to record individual sheep births on the department’s AIM (Animal Identification and Movement) database, according to the department.

Where sheep are stolen, keepers are advised to notify An Garda Siochana of the details and must record the relevant information on their flock registers, it added.

Departmental figures for cattle thefts indicate that there were some 125 cattle stolen from farms across the country in 2016; but, the department outlined that there were only 50 cattle stolen in the year just gone.

This represents a decrease of 60% in the space of a year.

However, doubts were cast over the figures from the department, as at least two high-profile incidents of cattle theft – where 27 cattle in total were taken – were not included in the statistics.

If these are incorporated into the department figures for 2017, the number of cattle stolen last year increases to 77. This would represent a drop of just under 35% compared to statistics from 2016; almost half of what the initial figures indicated.