what caused big lambs

I have 13 Wilts left in the flock. 3-5 yrs old. The ram has gone. These prev produced average twins. Always happy with these lambs. Easy lambing good strong healthy ewes.

We havent fussed with them at all theyve been out and about all winter. Plenty of grazing. We were desperate for a ram and friend dropped off a young Nelson.

They came in about 6 weeks before lambing as no grass and keep an eye on them. A few had gone very skinny but they sides were bugling out like nothing I have seen before. They were fed good hay and nuts (small portion).

Anyway they started lambing all going well but then some twins were huge absolute battle to get out. 1 ewe went down and with as much help I gave her she couldnt recover. The rest carried on with enormous lambs ewes self lambed but these were proper welsh lambs, thick wool and mega heavy (for us not record breaking ).

I took the twins off the ewe that went down and put in pet pen, they were equivalent to the 3 week old easycares. took immediately to the bucket. These things are born to survive indeed.

Im really pleased with the twins weve got these things are strong and have survival skills but these are going this year anyway. But what caused these big lambs? For the ewe seemed strong before lambing was completely killed off post lambing and can only assume the calcium was ripped from her bones.
 
We had a really mixed year lamb size wise with most lambs from one tup.Some were enormous singles/twins/triplets others were tiny. I kept the last one to lamb really tight because I was worried about what size lamb she would end up trying to get out and she had a little weedy thing that struggled to do anything for two days and yet she was in the same condition as one I lambed the week before which was so big I really thought I'd be sending for the vet to try and cut it up. I had "had to" feed over winter as really short of grass so figured it was my mistake somewhere somehow, that I had fed too much and that some ewes were putting more into the lambs while maintaining condition than others even as lambs.

Just concentrating on the lambs I've got now and will see what next year brings now I have all my fields back.
 
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