A monster-sized lamb born on a farm in the Scottish Borders earlier today could be a record-breaker.
The Texel cross ewe virtually broke the scales at Huntington Farm, near Lauder, Berwickshire, coming in at 22lbs – more than three times the average weight of a lamb.
In 2013 a lamb weighed in at 24lbs on a Lancashire farm, but sheep industry experts are trying to establish whether this latest arrival could be the heaviest born north of the border.
Lambing man John Ainslie provided the assistance at the 3am birth and handed over to farmer Dougie Runciman around 5.30am.
His wife Heather, 49, said: “They came in for breakfast and all the talk was about the size of this lamb which had just been born.
“Normally we don’t weigh the lambs but on this occasion we had to.
“I also took a picture to compare her to an average-sized lamb which comes in around seven pounds.
“We normally give our lambs names but have not come up with one yet as this has taken us all by surprise.
“The mother did extremely well. She took a while to get up but she managed it and is feeding now so everything is fine.”
Around 900 lambs are born each year at Huntington, but none have ever come close to this size.
Heather – who has been farming at Huntington for the past 23 years – added: “We had a very large lamb sometime ago but we never got it weighed but it did not compare with this.
“We have been asking around and doing a bit of Googling but have not come up with a heavier one in Scotland yet.
“Hopefully it is a record.”