A sheep has been sold for an eye-watering $490,059, which has set a new record in the United Kingdom.
The sheep, which is 6 months old, is a Texel ram, a breed that is from the Netherlands.
Sportmans Double Diamond, the sheep, belongs to a sheep breed that is known all over the world for its meat and wool used for hosiery yarns.
Diamond was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire.
He was sold at an auction in Lanark, Scotland.
Diamond was sold for $350,000, which smashed the previous record of 220,000 guineas.
The sheep was bought by a group of 3 breeders, the Auldhouseburn, Procters, and New View.
The breeders want to use Diamond to breed other top-class lambs.
The father of Diamond is the champion of 2019’s Garngour Craftsman.
Diamond was already subject of pre-sale speculation, little did they know that it would fetch a price this big.
John Yates, the chief executive of the Texel Sheep Society, said:
This will, to many people, sound like an extraordinary price for a sheep. The Texel breed is the number one terminal sire breed in then UK, siring about 30 percent of all the lambs born in the UK every year. This ram lamb has the potential to sire many, many rams which will in turn go on to breed many thousands of lambs themselves. This is the very top of the sheep breeding industry in the UK and as such the buyers are investing in the future of their businesses.
Texels are one of the most popular sheep for breeding in the United Kingdom, and the reason behind is that they have a very good known meet.
Most of the time, the cost of a lamb in the United Kingdom is at around $133 USD. However, high-quality lamb meat sell for a lot more.
This fella Diamond will only be used for breeding purposes, this is why he has a very expensive price.