Texel ram shatters world record

A new UK and world record price of 350,000gns (£367,500) was set for a sheep sold at auction yesterday when the Texel ram lamb Sportsmans Double Diamond set the annual pedigree sale at La nark alight.

The six-month- old ram lamb came from the Boden and Davies partnership which is based at Mellor Hall Farm near Stockport in Cheshire. The lamb– which had been the subject of much pre-sale speculation– is as on of last year’s Lanark sale champion, Garngour Craftsman, which was purchased for 65,000gns and is out of a dam by Plasucha Big Gun and was sold with an index in the top 1 per cent of the breed.

He was bought in a threeway split between Ayrshire farmers Alan Blackwood, of Auldhouseburn, near Murkirk, Messrs Teward’s New View flock from Staindrop in Count y Durham and the Procters flock run by Jeff and Jennifer Aiken in Lancaster.

The price smashed the previous record which had been set at the same sale back in 2009 at 220,000gns paid by Fraserburgh breeder Jimmy Douglas of Cairness for the eight-monthold Texel tup, Deveronvale Perfection, bred in Banffshire by Graham Morrison, Inchbruich.

But the ram lamb wasn’t the only top performer from the consignment presented by Charlie, Stephanie and Rosie Bod en– with their pen of seven all achieving five figure prices, returning an average price of £71,655.

● Due to Covid restrictions on accessing the market, a full report of the sale will be delayed until tomorrow.