Is this the smallest lamb in the world?

Tiny Flossie was born at Wychwood Farm in Shermanbury, near Henfield on Tuesday.

She was so small and cold that she had to receive special treatment from 14-year-old shepherdess Meghan Newman.


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Meghan, a pupil at Towers Convent School in Beeding, said: “It was quite shocking really because at the start she was really cold and weak - she'd been out there for about an hour before we realised she had been born.

“At first I really didn't think she was going to make it.

“So she needed to be looked after straight away and we used a hairdryer to warm her up.

“It took her a while to be able to walk, but thankfully she did start walking around after an hour or so.”

When Flossie was three-days-old, she weighed in at 2lb 1oz - the equivalent of a torch and a regular paperback novel.

The smallest lamb in the world is understood to be an Ouessant lamb from Durham which was born last week, weighing just 2lbs and only ten inches.

But pedigree Southdown lamb Flossie is thought to have been smaller than that when she was born.

Meghan added: “She has become a lot better now, she's walking around with no problems, but we're still going to be keeping an eye on her.

“Because she was born so small she's still got a lot of catching up to do.

“I always love lambing season - it's an exciting time of year and we're up at all hours tending to the sheep.

“We'll probably be lambing for about another week and then we've got two cows that are expecting too - so they'll be keeping us busy as well.”

Meghan's mum Becky Newman said: “We didn't even realist Flossie had been born - she just looked like a spec of fleece in the field.

“We've got 27 ewes and we've had 18 lambs so far this year.

“If we're lucky we'll get about 40 or 45 - it depends on how many twins we get.”