Scottish lamb called Vicious Sid sold for £152,000

The owner of this Scottish lamb has earned £152,000 at auction by selling it at auction. Picture: Newsline

The eight-month-old Texal - called Vicious Sid - is thought to have raised the second highest price for a lamb in the UK.

Sid, who was sold at Lanark Market on Thursday, fetched the enormous price because of his pedigree and the prospect that he will father many more sheep like him.

Lanark Market set the record for the highest-ever price paid for a sheep in the UK in 2009 when another Texal, Deveronvale Perfection, fetched £231,000.

Sid was sold by shepherd Robert Cockburn, 43, who usually tends to another famer’s sheep flock in Crieff, Perthshire.

Raising sheep is a hobby for Mr Cockburn, who has 25 ewes in his flock.

A shocked Mr Cockburn said: “I knew he was worth a bit of money but I didn’t expect him to go for that much.”

The farmer said that despite the whopping pay packet it was business as usual for the family man, who lives with girlfriend Diane and two-year-old daughter Jasmine in Crieff.

He said: “Nothing will change. I work full time and usually tend to my sheep in the mornings before work and in the evenings. The woman I work for has been very kind about allowing me extra time off to show sheep.”

Mr Cockburn said Texel breeds were among the most popular in the country and that Vicious Sid was even more valuable to buyers because of his pedigree bloodline.

Vicious Sid earned his unusual name after the Texel Sheep Society said all breeders must name their brood after the letter V.

Mr Cockburn said: “I have no idea what made me think of that name, I was just trying to think of something unusual that no one else would think of, something unusual.”

The consortium that purchased Sid will be hoping to make its money back from his offspring and sales of his semen.

Another Texal ram, Tophill Joe, is said to have earned his owners around £1 million after selling for £128,000 in 2003.

John Yates, chief executive of the British Texel Sheep Society, said the sale was a ringing endorsement of the commercial demands of modern sheep farmers.

He said: “While the top end of the trade clearly drew the pedigree breeders there was a solid commercial demand right through the sale, with good lambs easily sold.

“And with the top two priced lambs both coming from young breeders it is pleasing to see that in the Society’s 40th anniversary year the younger generation are at the forefront of the breed.

“The Texel breed is the dominant force in the British sheep industry and as today’s sale proves reaching the top of the breed can be achieved relatively quickly with careful breeding and buying decisions.”