31-inch Sligo cow to enter record books as world’s smallest
Sligo farmer Henry Judge shows ‘Ear to the Ground’ presenter Ella McSweeney her tiny bovine namesake.
The diminutive bovine, which features on RTÉ’s Ear to the Ground tonight, is even dwarfed by one of the pigs at her home in Oxhill Stud, Dromore West, Co Sligo.
Her proud owner, Henry Judge, said he is confident that 3-year-old Ella will secure her slot in the next Guinness Book of Records as the shortest cow on the planet.
“I think she is the smallest cow in the world. She was measured at 31 inches. She would walk under the kitchen table,” he said.
“I have a pig that is bigger than her and she was no bigger than a terrier when she was born.
“At the moment there is one there measured by the Guinness Book of Records. It’s a little black Dexter called Swallow in England but this one is nearly two inches shorter.”
Judge said Ella had to be a fully grown adult of three years to be officially measured for the record. “Ella can be measured by the Guinness Book of Records now as she is nearly four years old in April. She is seen as a fully grown adult. I had her professionally measured at 31 inches and having been showing her as the world’s smallest cow.”
The Sligo farmer told how he named the cow after RTÉ presenter Ella McSweeney as she was on his Oxhill Stud the day Ella’s mother calved.
He said: “Her name is Oxmount Ella and Ella for short. She is called after Ella as she was here talking to me for a radio show that day and I showed her a pregnant cow and the cow calved that evening.
“I told Ella if the cow calved and it was female I would name her after her and I kept my promise.”
The pint-sized bovine gave birth to a regular-sized Dexter calf last year but, within weeks, her calf needed to crouch downon his knees to suckle under his tiny mother.
Judge said: “The first calf she had was known as a long-legged calf and after about three weeks he had to go down on his knees to suckle her.”
Ella, who was born in April 2010, will be kept at his farm for the rest of her life. Judge said: “She will be here on the farm until she dies. We hope to get a calf for her every year for the next 10 or 15 years. They have a very long life, those little cows.”
Judge said he breeds Connemara ponies, the Dexter cows, and Blackface Mountain sheep. The Dexter cows were in danger of extinction in the 1970s but Judge revealed that they are enjoying a resurgence in farms across Ireland.
