Calves born prematurely generally don’t survive past infancy, but a calf born six weeks early on Salesian Agricultural College in Pallaskenry, Co Limerick, is defying the odds by not only surviving but thriving.

The bull calf weighed just 10kg at birth and is the progeny of Limousin Bull ZAG and Friesian/Angus dam.

“He’s the height of a cocker spaniel and the width of a greyhound and is just big enough to reach the cow,” Derek O’Donoghue, principal of the college said.

“It required plenty of extra TLC at birth and was bottle-fed 250ml of milk at birth (a normal calf requires three to four litres) for the first few days but is now strong enough to suckle the cow.

“We don’t know how he came so early as the herd was synchronised to fixed-time AI and wasn’t due until the end of February and there isn’t a bull kept on the farm,” O’Donoghue concluded.

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