Triplet Calves

Farm Animals Multiple Births In Farm Animals A local family gets a rare triple surprise from one of their cows.

by Jere Hough

Published: Wed, January 28, 2009 - 3:18 pm CST Last Updated: Wed, January 28, 2009 - 3:50 pm CST

When the cow gave birth to these three calves a month ago, all four beat the odds. There is only a one in a hundred-five thousand chance that a cow will give birth to triplets. It's kind of like winning the lotto...especially when all three calves survive.

Owner Wanda Sauers exclaimed, "We did not even know she was fixing to have a calf...She was not big or anything."

Her husband, Bill Sauers, and son, David, discovered the new family New Years Day morning, but Wanda Sauers thought they were trying to fool her.
"There's no way," she recalls thinking. "They're just trying to aggravate me about this, so I didn't believe them."

The calves were very small at birth...only 20 to 25 pounds instead of the normal 40 pounds. They are not identical; the triplets are two heifers and one bull.
Momma Cow is very gentle and doesn't mind a small group of onlookers, but she is unable to fully feed her three offspring.

"We supplement them with a bottle," she says, "but they all three nurse from her, too."

The Sauers sell off part of their herd every year, but they already admit that they're pretty attached to the three calves.
The two female calves are called "freemartins," heifers that are probably sterile, caused somehow by having a male twin.

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