Farmer's inventive solution to get cow out of swimming pool

"How do you get a cow out of your swimming pool?" sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it was all too real for Waikato dairy farmer Sam Owen earlier this week.

Owen was moving a mob of cows when one of them decided she wasn't going to follow the rules and opted for a refreshing dip instead.

While it wasn't uncommon for cows to do "daft things" in the middle of calving, this particular incident left Owen scratching his head, he told The Country's Rowena Duncum.

"I had a cow that had been drafted out of a mob and she was adamant she needed to get back in with that mob."

After jumping a couple of fences and ending up in Owen's back yard, the errant cow decided to hang a left and ended up in the swimming pool.

"[It was] a little bit greasy on the old deck and in she went."

Luckily Owen could see the funny side of the situation - before the practicalities set in.

"She did a couple of back strokes and few front crawls and then we had to work out a plan to get her out."

So - how do you get a cow out of your swimming pool?

"After a little bit of contemplation and some hair pulling ... we decided she needed some kind of mechanism to get her out via steps or ramp," Owen said.

"So we found an old couch in the garage and we tossed it in and by some sheer luck we got her to climb onto the couch and push herself out onto the deck and out she ran and joined back where she wanted to go in the first place."

So there you have it.

Needless to say the incident has inspired many corny jokes after Owen posted his photos on Twitter, including:

"Cow water birthing unit now open in the Waikato."

"We're gonna need a bigger float."

"Chuck me a towel - the water's cold and I'm Friesian."

But perhaps the final word should go to the Eureka farmer himself, who came up with this gem:

"Farmer from Waikato fails at world record attempt for largest cup of tea ever made - as he forgets to take the milk out of the cow first."