Sat 29 August 2020:
Previous record set in 2009, when sheep of same breed sold for $308,382
The world’s most expensive sheep was sold in Scotland for £367,500 ($490,625), PA Media reported Friday.
Double Diamond was sold Thursday at the Scottish National Texel sale in Lanark.
The pedigree Texel ram lamb was sold by Charlie Boden and his family, whose flock is in Stockport, Cheshire.
The initial opening bid was £10,500 ($14,018), but quickly increased. The buyers were a partnership of three farmers.
World’s most expensive sheep sold at auction: ‘Obscene amount of money’
The Texel ram lamb sold for the equivalent of about $490,000 at auction in Scotland this week, according to the Texel Sheep Society.https://t.co/9OBHWUHunv #FoxNews pic.twitter.com/rxXLI7iqkh— Aamir Ghazanfar (@AamirGhazanfarS) August 29, 2020
“He is the best lamb I have ever seen – so correct on his legs, bright, with a great top. He’s got it all,” said buyer Jeff Aiken.
Aiken and his two partners, who run farms in Ayrshire and Northumberland, will share ownership of Double Diamond. He will be put out to stud, paired off with dams for a premium price; as he gets older, his sperm will be collected to use for artificial insemination.
Aiken, who breeds Texels at the farm he and his wife, Jen, run in Lancashire, was keen to stress such prices were rare. “Don’t get me wrong, it is an obscene amount of money to pay for a sheep, and it definitely should not be a reflection on the farming community.”
PA Media reported it was allegedly the most expensive sheep sold in the world.
The previous record was set in 2009, when a Texel, Deveronvale Perfection, was sold for £231,000 ($308,382), according to the Texel Sheep Society.
Texel sheep are believed to have come from the island of Texel, one of the islands northwest off Holland. The breed now dominates the UK sheep industry.
