by Chinwe Okafor

Farmers have hailed a ‘miracle’ after a cow at a nursery with no bulls suddenly gave birth to a calf.

Apparently, Harriet the cow has lived a life of celibacy since she moved to her owner’s nursery but owner Liz Robinson was left stunned when the Dexter cow suddenly went into labour and gave birth to calf, Petal.

Ms Robinson, 30, said: ‘We had absolutely no idea Harriet was pregnant until she woke us up in labour.

‘She didn’t look any different to the others – just another fat cow. We have never bred cows at the nursery so we don’t have any bulls.

‘We weren’t told Harriet was pregnant when we bought her so when Petal arrived we were all stumped.’

Ms Robinson said: ‘One of the cows woke Tom up with their loud lowing. He rushed down to see what was going on.

‘When he got there Harriet was in the middle of labour and that was the first we knew.

‘We thought some of the others might have been pregnant, but we’ve had no babies since.’

Fortunately for Petal – named after the flowers grown at the nursery – she is not destined to be sold in the farm shop.