So tweet: Farm’s miniature new arrival finding fame via Twitter updates

Gareth Barlow with "Microlamb" , a tiny Hebridean Rare Breed lamb born on Sunday. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

The infant weighed little  more than 2lb when born on Sunday to become the latest addition to young North Yorkshire farmer Gareth Barlow’s 400-strong flock of rare-breed Hebrideans.

Self-taught sheep farmer Mr Barlow, 22, who lives in the village of Bulmer, near Malton, is sharing the early life and times of Micro Lamb via Twitter. Within hours of @MicroLamb going live, more than 140 people had signed up to get updates.

So far the updates have noted chasing a dog around the kitchen table, confessing to a few accidents on the kitchen floor and snuggling up next to the Aga.

Mr Barlow said: “Micro Lamb doesn’t have a name. It’s exactly what it says on the tin, like Ronseal. It is a ridiculously small lamb.”

Its arrival came as something of a surprise. “There had been no sign that the ewe was expecting. I was just loading up and it happened so quickly. I looked around and saw something at its feet and this tiny face appeared looking out at me so I bundled it in the car and brought it inside.”

That Mr Barlow is a sheep farmer at all is itself extraordinary. He abandoned his zoology studies at Durham University to pursue the vocation and childhood dream despite not coming from a farming family.

Six years after he saved up Christmas and birthday  money and sold his PlayStation to buy his first sheep, his flock is now reared over 130 acres loaned to him by local farmers and landowners in the Howardian Hills.

His lamb has been eaten by royalty and is supplied to more than 20 top restaurants.