The Scottish National Texel Sale in Lanark, Scotland, this week saw a new world record price for a sheep, when Charlie Boden and family sold Sportsmans Double Diamond for 350,000gns.
This lamb – one of 19 to make 10,000gns or more – is sired by the 65,000gns Lanark champion from last year, Garngour Craftsman.
He is an embryo-bred lamb from a ewe lamb flushed last year and sired by the 32,000gns Plasucha Big Gun.
The Boden families Sportsmans flock is in Stockport, Cheshire, in England.
According to the British Texel Sheep Society, Double Diamond was “the subject of much pre-sale speculation and a crowed puller from the moment he set foot in the market”, and carries an index in the top 1% of the breed.
The sheep was met with an opening bid of 10,000gns, with the price escalating quickly in a rarely seen “bidding war” between two consortiums.
Eventually, a three-way partnership – involving bidders based in Maybole, Scotland, and Lancashire and Darlington in England – came out on top in the bidding.
Irish blue texel sale
In other news, The Irish Blue Texel Society is gearing up for its second annual show and sale tomorrow (Saturday, August 29) at The Showgrounds, Carrick-On-Shannon, Co. Leitrim.
The show is set to begin at 10:30am, while the sale is due to kick off at 1:00pm.
In total, there will be 75 lots on offer, which are broken up into shearling rams and ewes and ewe lambs and ram lambs.
A breakdown of what will be on offer on the day is listed below.
- 10 shearling rams – including one Dassenkop;
- 34 ram lambs – including one Dassenkop;
- Four shearling ewes;
- 27 ewe lambs.
