600,000 jumpers delivered to keep lambs warm across Australia

A NSW farmer has helped producers all over the country keep their poddy lambs alive – and warm – with her lamb jumpers.

These lambs are wearing knitted jumpers by Lamb Jumper, an initiative set up by Marie Knight of Coonabarabran who put a call out to knitters across the world to help orphaned lambs survive in the freezing winter. Picture: Alex Coppel

NSW farmer Marie Knight has sent more than 600,000 jumpers to farmers across Australia to keep their poddy lambs warm.

And this year due to drought and tough seasonal conditions, Marie said she has been sending more to South Australia, Victoria and southern NSW than normal.

“I have always used jumpers on poddy lambs, it is something my grandmother did,” Marie said.

“It makes sense and works, lambs are just like a newborn baby and can’t control their body temperature, so if they get too cold they can die.”
“If they are in the paddock with their mother the mother controls the body temperature by sheltering them or moving them to the sun, so putting a jumper on a lamb keeps them warm and gives them a much higher chance of surviving.”

“More farmers use them now as they have learnt or have been told by other farmers how well a simple free little jumper works.”

When NSW was in the midst of drought in 2018, Marie, who is a wool grower alongside her husband based at Coonabarabran in NSW, said her mother’s knitting group had made extra jumpers for her poddy lambs and she offered the spares to people online.

Some lambs wearing lamb jumpers, organised by Marie Knight.

She said they had 100 requests in the first day and she was then encouraged in August 2018 to start her Facebook page – Lamb Jumpers “Helping our Farmers” – which has been spreading the word since.

“During the drought there weren’t too many uplifting stories and this is something people could do that actually helped,” Marie said.

“The knitters are so generous.”

Knitters from all over the world send the lamb jumpers to Marie to distribute to farmers who need them.

The lamb jumpers are free and those who need them can get in touch via the Facebook page.

Marie said Rural Aid recently collected a big supply to help deliver them to South Australia.

“The knitters love doing it and the farmers, for so many different reasons, appreciate so much the fact someone they don’t know would knit them a jumper to keep their lambs warm.”

“It really helps bridge that city and country divide too.”

During the past seven years Marie said she has received so many wonderful messages and letters from knitters and farmers who have received the jumpers and reading them was something that really “brightened” them in tough periods.

Marie received an Order of Australia medal in 2020 for service to rural communities, for her work with the lamb jumpers.