It may sound a bit silly, but knitters across Australia have joined forces to knit tiny jumpers for baby lambs struggling to survive in drought-stricken regions of Australia.

While sheering sheep to make wool to then turn said wool into jumpers for lambs may sound counterintuitive, it's a program that's got an important purpose.

The jumpers are for orphaned lambs that need to be hand fed, and so don't have mothers to cuddle up against in the colder months. Some of the lambs are twins or triplets that can't be supported by the mother, because the drought has made feed scarce. Many of these lambs die from the cold.

“During drought mothers for some unknown reason have more multiple births than usual,” the team explained.

“As such they are not strong enough to look after all of their young and will generally abandon one or all. These jumpers help to give the extra warmth that a mother would normally while the farmers substitute with bottle feeding.”

The Lamb Jumpers project was started by Marie Knight, a Country Women’s Association member and sheep farmer. 

“We have sent out well over 1000 jumpers so far to very thankful farmers with many more on our waiting list,” said the Lamb Jumpers team.

“There are jumpers arriving daily with hundreds of people jumping on board to help knit and distribute.”

While many city folk may not realise just how badly the drought is affecting farmers, but with every jumper received through program, it shows them we do care about their plight. So, if you can knit, head to the Lamb Jumpers for patterns and instructions for how you can help our farmers.