£33,600? One Elle of a price for a woolly jumper

But farmer Alasdair Beaton will have only himself to blame after splashing out £33,600 on a woolly jumper with a rather impressive pedigree.

Mr Beaton, of Slammanan, Stirlingshire, bought a top-notch pregnant Texel ewe to add to his flock at Wester Crosshill Farm. But he admitted his wife Linda was shocked to hear how much he had paid for the sheep he has dubbed Elle, after the supermodel Elle “The Body” Macpherson.

Mr Beaton, 55, who also owns an engineering company, has been breeding Texels for 15 years. He said: “I’ve bought some expensive sheep before but this is by far the dearest – the wife nearly killed me when I told her how much I’d spent.

“With Texels you look out for certain characteristics that make them good breeders and this one has everything.”

Texel sheep are renowned for their lean meat but Elle won’t be heading to the slaughterhouse any time soon and instead will hopefully produce future record-breaking lambs. John Yates from the Texel Sheep Society said the record price was good news for the breed – which hails from a Dutch island.

He added: “This is a phenomenal amount for a ewe, we often see these kind of prices for tups that can produce far more offspring but this smashes the record.”