Your reading list

Cow delivers triplets

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Published: February 24, 2005

BALZAC, Alta. Ñ On a crispy cold February morning Don Francis went out to check his cows to see how many calves had arrived overnight.

One of his favourites, a seven-year-old Black Angus named Annie, had grown so heavy with calf that she couldn’t pass through the chutes and could barely get through the gates.

Twins, he decided.

“When I came out in the morning, there were three babies. I thought, what the heck, triplets?”

The healthy youngsters were born Feb. 11 and have already been registered with the Canadian Angus Association.

Read Also

Dwayne Summach, livestock and feed extension specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, demonstrates how to use the Penn State Particle Size Separator at Ag in Motion 2025. Photo: Piper Whelan

VIDEO: How to check your feed mixer’s efficiency

Dwayne Summach, livestock and feed extension specialist with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture, showed visitors at Ag in Motion 2025 how to use the Penn State Particle Size Separator to check the efficiency and performance of your total mixed ration feed mixers.

The mother has not rejected any of them and is feeding them all. At times, all three gather round for a quick drink before they run off to frolic in the maternity pen.

The bull calf was born breech and weighed 70 pounds while the two heifers weighed 45 and 60 lb. They are all about the same height but the two females are thinner than their brother. Francis plans to offer them creep feed in a couple of weeks and if another one of his 28 cows loses a calf, he will move one over so it can be fostered.

The bull calf was born in a separate amniotic sac and the heifers were together so Francis hopes the females will be able to breed. In some cases, a female multiple can be sterile.

The mother of this set delivered the largest calf on the farm last year and Francis hopes it can rebreed later this spring. It is on an extra ration of grain to provide enough milk for the brood.

At one time Francis kept about 120 cows and decided to retire from the cattle business. However, his love of cows made him decide to buy a small group and he bought Red and Black Angus cows in the fall of 2003 from northern Alberta.

These cows had been raised in drought conditions and when they came to the lush pastures of the south, they gained rapidly and produced heavy calves.

Last year’s grass was especially good in the breeding season, providing plenty of high quality nutrition for the triplets’ mother.

“I think that was the key that brought her on,” said Francis.

About the author

Barbara Duckworth

Barbara Duckworth

Barbara Duckworth has covered many livestock shows and conferences across the continent since 1988. Duckworth had graduated from Lethbridge College’s journalism program in 1974, later earning a degree in communications from the University of Calgary. Duckworth won many awards from the Canadian Farm Writers Association, American Agricultural Editors Association, the North American Agricultural Journalists and the International Agriculture Journalists Association.

explore

Stories from our other publications