Rescue services were called out after a report of a cow stuck in mud at a farm between Sedbury and Beachley.

The Severn Area Rescue Association joined Gloucestershire Fire Service at Buttington Farm after the animal had somehow ended up swimming in the Wye alongside a bank of very soft mud on a falling tide, with her calf in the field (on the Beachley bank) with the rest of the herd.

Lifeboat SARA3 with its crew arrived on scene about 6.40pm, and for an hour coaxed the cow, now named Gertrude (not her real name), down the river to a gully where the fire team and the farmer were preparing to extract her.

The fire team meanwhile set up a line of three mud platforms to aid access, as SARA3 blocked the cow from leaving the gully. This inevitably resulted in SARA3 becoming beached on the mud herself.

So the team called in SARA14 in from Newport to try to release SARA3, but they eventually had to simply tie her off to wait for a rising tide. SARA14 ferried the muddy crew back to Beachley.

Meanwhile Gertude was unceremoniously dragged up the mud, by the fire service Animal Rescue team.

As the sun was setting the fire team set up scene lighting as the cow was still on the mud bank.The cow was obviously very exhausted, but as they were leaving the scene, the Beachely-based crew members witnessed the cow sitting up, nosing with other members of her herd who had gathered round to welcome her back.

The beached and abandoned SARA3 was retrieved at 1am the following morning, having been refloated by the tide.

Richard Newhouse of the Severn Area Rescue Association said: “ it was a very good joint working with the fire team from Lydney, their animal rescue specialists, us and the farmer”.