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Suckler and sheep farmer Katherine McAteer from St Johnston, Lifford in Co Donegal owns one of the 95 animals reported to ICBF in 2016.
On 25 October, she called the vet to help deliver a heifer calf that was twisted in the womb.
“He untangled her and when she dropped, we saw that she had no eyes and a stumpy tail,” recalls McAteer. “The vet said he would put her down but I said no.”
The heifer has two eye sockets and functioning eyelids that blink, complete with tear ducts, but both eyeballs are missing. “We went on the internet to see if anyone else had ever had a calf like her and we came across Jennifer’s study. We are waiting to get the result back.
“She’s a clever thing. The night she was born, I was watching her on the camera. She was a very lively calf, running around and she kept hitting off the gate. But by the morning she was running in a smaller circle; she knew how far she could go inside the pen.”
Now three months old, the calf is thriving and is penned with a batch of other calves. They suck their mothers twice a day.
“Her mother calls her and she goes straight to her, follows the sound and then goes to the opposite end for her drink,” says her owner. “She holds her own with the other calves and they all play around together.
“She went out in the field with her mother for two weeks before the weather turned but we’ll have to be careful what field she goes out in so that she won’t fall into a ditch.”
Jenny, who was named after the ICBF scientist who is studying her, is by a Charolais bull out of a Limousin x Simmental cow.
“It would probably have made more sense financially to put her down but I am very fond of her. She might leave me a fortune yet,” adds McAteer. “She knows the sound of my voice and will cock her head when you talk to her, listening. She is fascinating to watch.”
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