World’s most expensive sheep Double Diamond sells for Rs 3.5 crore

A Texel Ram (Image: Maxpixel)

A Texel Ram has become the world’s most expensive sheep after fetching a record-breaking 367,500 pounds (Rs 3.5 crore) at the Scottish National Texel Sale in Lanark this week.

The previous record for the most expensive sheep was 2,31,000 pounds, which was also a Texel.

The six-month-old lamb named Double Diamond is native of Texel in the Netherlands. This breed is known for its lean meat and good quality of wool that is used to make hosiery yarns.

However, the world’s most expensive sheep did not fetch the incredible amount just by virtue of its features - toned torso and a perfect gold coat. The lamb was fathered by 2019’s champion Garngour Craftsman. Double Diamond is also special because it is an embryo-bred lamb.

Double Diamond was bought by a group of three sheep breeders for 3,67,500 pounds, reported The Guardian. They want to use the lamb to breed other lambs. The bidding for the lamb had started at 10,500 pounds but kept increasing rapidly as people scrambled to own it.

John Yates, chief executive, 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 the UK, siring about 30 percent of all the lambs born in the UK every year."