A HALF-tonne beast made a big splash by deciding to take a late night dip in an outdoor pool.

Vicky Greves and her husband Tony, who run Langley Farm, near Witney, were getting ready for bed just after 11pm on Sunday when their dogs alerted them to a commotion outside.

Looking through the window, they couldn't believe their eyes when they saw a charolais beast swimming about in their small pool.

Mrs Greves joked: "Dressed in swimming trunks and wearing armbands, he was just doing lengths of the pool. He looked pretty content mind, and didn't seem too stressed."

The couple went out to assess the situation, and realised that this was one of those times when you call the fire brigade.

Firefighters, who are normally associated with rescuing cats from trees, drove to the aid of the beast which had ended up in the pool after escaping from its field and wandering away from the herd.

The top-quality bullock, destined for the table, certainly seemed to milk his moment in the limelight, as it took ten firefighters around an hour-and-a-half to pump the pool down to a foot of water, before a large bale of hay was lowered in by Mr Greves for the beast to climb out of its own accord.

A vet was present for the whole of the rescue, and afterwards the unharmed bullock wandered back to join the rest of the herd.

Mrs Greves added: "The fire service were very good. We weren't overly happy when we first saw what had happened.

"Farmers are having a terrible time at the moment, with the wet weather having an impact on silage and hay levels, so this didn't come at a good time for us.

"It wasn't great to lose another bale of hay, and end up with an empty pool, but the rescue all went 'swimmingly', and at the end of it the bullock was certainly very clean! Who knows, perhaps swimming ones cattle could produce better beef!

"Most upset though were our children, who slept through the whole event and couldn't believe it when we told them in the morning!"

Group Commander Alan McCall, from Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, added: "The cow was quite a size, and when he finally came out, we made sure we were out of the way. It was certainly a bit strange to see a bullock in a swimming pool.

"I've never seen anything like that before, but we deal with all animal rescues in the county be it cats up trees or cows in pools."