Video: World's most expensive sheep sells for £368,000

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Dubai - Trio of breeders team up to buy Texel lamb Double Diamond for 'obscene amount' following frenzied Scottish auction.

By Web report

Published: Fri 28 Aug 2020, 10:07 PM

Last updated: Sat 29 Aug 2020, 6:26 AM

What a baa-rgain! Or not, as the case may be...
A Texel lamb has become the world's most expensive sheep after being sold for almost £368,000 (Dh1,785,450) at an auction in Scotland, British media such as BBC News reported on Friday.
Breeder Charlie Boden sold the six-month-old Texel ram called Double Diamond to a consortium of three sheep farmers.
The Scottish National Texel Sale on Thursday was a frenzied affair, with a an opening bid of just £10,000 (Dh48,980) being lodged.

The world's most expensive sheep has sold at auction in Scotland for almost £368,000 ?? https://t.co/gdu4pfvkPA pic.twitter.com/P3gylDrI1Z
- BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) August 28, 2020

An intense bidding war soon commenced between several parties, though, according to reports.
The eye-watering fee which clinched the sale set "a UK and world record price for a sheep", according to a statement on the Texel Sheep Society's website.
The previous record of just over £230,000 (Dh1.1 million) was set in 2009.
According to the BBC, Texel sheep originate from a small island off the coast of the Netherlands and often sell for five-figure sums.
Double Diamond was sold by breeders from Stockport in Greater Manchester, England.
He will now be shared by Hugh and Alan Blackwood's Auldhouseburn flock in Muirkirk in Scotland; the Proctors flock in Lancashire, England, and Messrs Teward's New View flock, in Darlington, England.
The three farmers hope to recoup their lavish investment through breeding, the BBC reported.
Jeff Aiken, farm manager of the Procter's flock, who was one of the buyers, told the BBC: "In the pedigree breed you start looking at the smaller characteristics of the sheep - the hair, the colour, the shape of the head."
Mr Aiken added: "We had to pay that amount of money to get the genetics."
He maintained that the huge price did not change the fact that many sheep farmers are facing financial uncertainty.
Mr Aiken said: "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."
He added: "There is only a small percentage of farmers that can afford to pay this kind of money."