DAFOE, Sask. – Four of a kind is hard enough to get in a poker hand, let alone in a farmyard.
Quadruplet Shorthorn calves were born to a Dafoe, Sask. cow two weeks ago. The unassisted birth took place over a few hours and yielded two female and two male calves.
“We called the University of Saskatchewan vet clinic and they told us it was a million to one shot that four would be born. All born alive and in good health, the odds against that we can’t even imagine,” said Mari Knudsen.
Birthweights averaged about 20 kilograms, considerably less than the 40 kg average on the farm.
“It’s more trouble than you might imagine. The cow can’t produce enough milk for them all so for now they have to be bottle fed with milk replacer. Eventually they’ll be pail fed but even that is going to mean a lot of extra work,” said Knudsen.
The seven-year-old cow belongs to the family’s oldest son, Eric. Three times the cow has produced twins in the past, but not all survived.
