An appeal for information has been made after 15 pure-bred Swaledale in-lamb ewes were stolen from mountains in Co. Kerry.

The ewes were taken from the Slieve Mish Mountains in Castlemaine, at the eastern end of the Dingle Peninsula.

Speaking to Agriland, the farmer who owns the sheep, Patrick Dwyer, explained the

"They were left out on Slieve Mish around January 12 and it's only in the last week or so we're gathering them for lambing. There's no sign; I've searched the back and front of Slieve Mish."

The farmer added that there are "only a couple of points" for bringing sheep off the mountain, so someone might have seen something.

"Two years ago we marked all the ewes with yellow paint on one horn. It didn't seem to stay but if you look closely at the horns, especially to the back of the horn, there are specks of yellow on it. I would know them wherever they would be.

"This is not the first time we've been targeted; it's about six or seven years ago since a good few went missing but previous to that we were targeted for 20 years solid. We were plagued with sheep theft, myself and my father.

"We used to keep around 1,000 sheep - and definitely 20 ewes around August or September always went missing.

"A few years ago there were a few sheep taken from a few neighbours here and there; there would only be two or three - but they were taken.

"The person that stole them had the exact same van as the owner so nobody took one blind bit of notice. There were two young fellows seen but the person who saw them thought they were the owners of the sheep - they took them in broad daylight.

"It's desperate. There's nothing worse when you're out on open commonage across thousands of acres trying to find them when they're not there.

"There are two fields near me; my neighbours had them taken for 20 years. About 10 years ago they had 23 Texel ewe lambs there. They were to take the lambs to the mart on the Tuesday - on the Monday night 21 of them were stolen."

It's a local problem Patrick maintained, with local knowledge - adding that "that's the really maddening thing about it".

"I'm not going to stay sheep farming if this keeps going on; I've enough to do besides chasing sheep for somebody else."