DEVASTATED farmer Clive Bevin has spoken of his worst lambing season to date after a spate of fox attacks left more than 20 new-born lambs dead.

Mr Bevin made the grim discoveries in a field at Blandford Road, Corfe Mullen. He believes up to 10 foxes may have been responsible, although neighbours have since shot seven.

Mr Bevin,of Heckford Road, Corfe Mullen, said: "The lambing season started early. Foxes were chasing the ewes and some of the lambs were born dead because of that.

"I have found lambs with their heads bitten off and a dead ewe with a hole in one side.

"They were semi-urban foxes, coming in from the built-up area."

Mr Bevin, who has kept sheep for seven years, said he had never experienced such a terrible season. "I was coming in at 1am and having to get up at 5am. At one point I almost felt like giving it all up," he said.

Meanwhile, he and wife Rachel are bottle-feeding eight orphan lambs, who were unable to feed from their mothers or were rejected after getting lost in the field.

"They were so small. They started off wrapped up in a cardboard box with a hot water bottle.

"We're got three in the conservatory and the others, who are more robust, are in the stables.

"We're feeding them four times a day so it's a full-time job but we hope to get them on to hard food as quickly as possible," added Mr Bevin.