A Norfolk farming family was stunned when a prized sheep fetched more than £15,000 at a pedigree livestock sale.

Elizabeth Barber and her partner Mitchel Britten sold their Charollais ram lamb named Cavick What A Boy at the Worcester Premier Sale.

The couple breed pedigree Charollais sheep at the Barber family's Cavick House Farm near Wymondham.

Miss Barber said they were amazed at the sale price of 15,000 guineas, or £15,750 - which she said is one of the top ten prices ever paid for the breed.

"We always knew that he was going to be something that people would want to buy, but we had no clue he was going to make that sort of money," she said. "We were both in tears afterwards.

"We knew he was something special from the day he was born.

"For us, it is very important for the animal to look like a Charollais. He has a very strong head, and he is a big muscular animal and the best thing was he had such a big gigot (hind quarters). He is correct in every way.

"He is a hell of an animal and a lot of people said they have not seen a ram lamb like that."

She added that the sale price was an endorsement of the breeding pedigree at the farm, and a "nice boost to our confidence".

"It is nice to know that we have got an eye for stock and we are getting good results," she said.

Her sister Annabel Grant said: "We have a long-standing history with the Charollais breed. The first Charollais sheep were imported to the UK from France to our farm in the 70s.

"Our father David had to come out of breeding Charollais sheep to concentrate on the rest of the farm so it’s brilliant to now have one of the best Charollais rams in the country coming from our farm again."

The auction at Worcester set a high bar for the Charollais sales season, with one animal reaching an even higher price than Cavick What A Boy - with a Devon-bred lamb selling for 17,000 guineas.