Thursday was a day Crieff shepherd Robert Cockburn is unlikely to forget.
The annual premier sale of Texel rams in Lanark Mart was the scene of some frenzied bidding which saw the auctioneer’s hammer coming down at 145,000gns (£152,050) for Robert’s ram lamb (Kanap Vicious Sid).
Although he has been a top breeder of Texel sheep for years, this is by far Robert’s best price.
“I knew it was a good one, but I didn’t think it would make that price,” he said.
Robert’s “day job” is looking after Mary McCall Smith’s well-known Blackface sheep flock at Connachan, near Crieff, but sheep are also his paying hobby.
He has 25 ewes in his Knap flock of Texels which he shares with girlfriend Dianne Wood. Their daughter Jasmine, 2, was at Lanark to witness the great day and their second child is due in October.
The couple have had show prizes and good prices before, but Thursday’s top price, paid by a three-way consortium, puts them into an elite league.
It is not a breed record that honour going to Deveronvale Perfection a ram lamb from Graham Morrison which sold at Lanark in 2009 to fellow Aberdeenshire breeder Jimmy Douglas for 210,000gns.
Another Texel, Tophill Joe, sold for 128,000gns in 2003.
These might seem phenomenal prices for eight-month-old pedigree lambs but, if bought shrewdly, there is money to be made.
The consortium which bought Tophill Joe are believed to have grossed £1 million from sales of his progeny and semen.
It is all a case of picking the right one!