A FARMER has been hospitalised after he was trampled by a calf on a property in northern NSW. 

The man, aged in his 70s, suffered cuts and bruises to his upper body when he was trying to move the animal out of a holding pen at a rural property in Ashford this morning.

A NSW Ambulance spokeswoman said the farmer, who was in a stable condition at Inverell Hospital, "assured paramedics that the poddy (orphan) calf was bigger than your average calf."

"It got a bit jumpy when he was trying to move it and knocked him over," she said.