LONDON — A British farmer who paid a new world record price for a sheep said the animal is the finest specimen he has ever seen.

Farmer Jimmy Douglas shelled out $347,000 for the 8-month-old Texel ram called Deveronvale Perfection at an annual sale in Lanark, Scotland.

Douglas said the ram has "a great body and strong loin."

The British Texel Sheep Society said the fee paid Thursday is a world record, eclipsing a $335,000 price paid in Australia in 1989.

Society member John Yates said the ram will likely father pedigree lambs worth millions of dollars for his new owner.

Breeder Graham Morrison, of Banff, Scotland, said he was staggered by the price but insisted Deveronvale Perfection lives up to his name.