25 lambs in 11 lambings

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32702, 3 September 1971, Page 18

25 lambs in 11 lambings

This stud ewe in a small Christchurch Border Leicester flock has now given birth to 25 lambs in the course of 11 lambings. She is now 12 years old. For a lifetime record it is thought that this performance could be the equal of any put up in this country. This ewe, which has dropped twins this spring, has now given birth to four sets of triplets, six sets of twins and has had a single lamb only once. As well the average growth rate of her progeny from birth to weaning has been 0.541 b per day for the 23 bom before the current season. This means that over her lifetime her lambs have been producing

more than 11b of liveweight per day. It is thought that this performance would be above average for the breed. The ewe is in the Swanleigh flock of D. S. and R. M. Hart. Dr D. S. Hart is reader in animal science at Lincoln College. She was bred in the Swanleigh flock and as a shorn hogget was placed fourth at the Royal Show in Christchurch in 1960. Her mother was a twin ewe from the Aberdeen stud of R. J. Low and Sons at Highbank in MidCanterbury. This ewe was purchased by the Harts after she had had two lambings and the indications were that she was a good sheep. Her lifetime record was 11 lambs in six lambings and from birth to weaning her lambs grew at

an average of 0.611 b per day. The sire of the 25-lamb producing ewe was also bred by the Harts. His dam was a former Lincoln College ewe which produced 19 lambs in nine lambings and which had an average lamb growth rate from birth to weaning of 0.511 b per day. This is a good example of the results of selection for fertility, milk production and growth rate, which has obviously given a sheep which possesses the characteristics of fertility —the Border Leicester breed is of course the top fertility breed in the country at the moment—milking ability and constitution. In the latter respect the average ewe in a commercial flock would have about six lambings.