The Government has made its highest compensation payout for a single animal culled in the foot-and-mouth epidemic - £50,000 for a pedigree North Yorkshire breeding ram.

The Swaledale tup, Mossdale Nuggett, was killed by ministry vets on May 24, to the despair of owners Eric Nelson, 57, and Robbie Cowperthwaite, 40.

The farming neighbours had banded together to buy the animal four years ago.

It was bred at Mossdale Farm, near Hawes, in Wensleydale, and was the subject of enormous interest when it was put up for sale at Hawes Show in 1997.

The Swaledale, a hardy breed, produced a string of valuable lambs before foot-and-mouth arrived at Mr Cowperthwaite's farm at Settle.

Mossdale Nuggett was destroyed along with his 1,000 other sheep and 225 cattle. Mr Cowperthwaite said: "It seems like a big payment but we are only getting back what we paid.

"The compensation will help us stock up, but it could be months before we are able to do that.

"We will be lucky to find another ram as good as that one, he was a one-off. At the time we bought him it was a record for the breed, but he was worth every penny."

A spokesman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "This is the highest we have paid for a single animal. Pedigree breeding animals such as this one do cost a large amount of money."

Read more about the foot-and-mouth crisis here.