Freak Lamb Weighing 281bs On Coastal Station

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 70, 19 July 1948, Page 3

Freak Lamb Weighing 281bs On Coastal Station

Although she died in the effort, it appears that a Hick’s Bay ewe, created a New Zealand record during the war years by carrying a 281 b lamb. It was no fish story. According to the memory of Mr A. Leslie, chief veterinary executive officer of the Veterinary Services Council, while attending the Gisborne Veterinary Club’s farm school recently the record for the Dominion was 22|lb. He would not believe the account of Mr O. T. Williams, Ruatoria, that the weight of the freak lamb was 381 b. Mr Williams, also, said he was speaking from memory. The facts of the case recounted by Mr Williams have been disclosed by the woman shepherd in question. The actual weight of the ram lamb was 281 b., she writes.

“The lamb was like a small ram in appearance, even to the Roman nose and the wrinkles on its face,” her letter states. Even the pouch was huge like a ram’s and the only thing peculiar about it was that under the skin there was a thick layer of a jelly-like substance. “To me it looked like a lamb the ewe had forgotten to have twelve months before,” the writer concluded.