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Some baaaa-rgain: Sheep sells for world record $490K in Scotland auction

By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Record -selling sheep sold A Texel ram sold for a record $490,000 this week in Scotland. ( Farm Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

We are not pulling the wool over your eyes -- this was one pricey sheep.

A 6-month-old Texel ram sold for a record 350,000 guineas -- which translates to $490,000 in U.S. currency -- to a consortium of three farms, the BBC reported.

The record purchase occurred at the Scottish National Texel sale, according to a news release from the Texel Sheep Society. Bidding started at 10,000 guineas or $13,000, CNN reported.

One guinea is equal to about $1.40 in American currency.

The sale broke the previous record of $230,000 pounds (or more than $307,000 in U.S. money) set in 2009 for a sheep named Deveronvale Perfection, according to CNN.

“He is the best lamb I have ever seen -- so correct on his legs, bright, with a great top,” Jeff Aiken, farm manager of the Procter’s flock and one of the winning bidders, told The Scotsman. “He’s got it all.”

The other winning bidders were the Auldhouseburn and New View flocks, The Scottish Farmer reported. Double Diamond was sired by the 2019 Lanark champion, Garngour Craftsman, the newspaper reported.

Charlie Boden and family sold Double Diamond from their Sportsmans flock in Stockport, England, according to the Texel Sheep Society.

The sheep come from the small island of Texel, located off the northwest coast of the Netherlands, and usually fetch five-figure prices, the BBC reported.

Jeff Aiken, farm manager of the Procter’s flock and one of the winning bidders, said the pedigree of the sheep was the reason the price was driven up during the auction.

“In the pedigree breed you start looking at the smaller characteristics of the sheep -- the hair, the color, the shape of the head,” Aiken told the BBC. “We had to pay that amount of money to get the genetics.”

Aiken conceded the winning bid was extremely high.

“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,” Aiken told the BBC. “There is only a small percentage of farmers that can afford to pay this kind of money.”


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