Four calves born? Holy cow!
The arrival of four calves is causing quite a stir on a farm in South Taranaki
Blossom, Bonny, Bluebell and Belinda don’t know it, but they’re extremely rare, writes Catherine Groenestein.
So rare, in fact, that when the quadruplet calves arrived, South Taranaki farmer Michael Kavanagh had them DNA tested to prove they really were all from one mother - something that happens less than once in every 650,000 cattle births.
The DNA test results arrived back on Wednesday, bringing smiles all round for Michael and his parents, Danny and Eileen, who farm together at Waitotara.
The family had been pretty sure of their quadruplet story, but having the facts in black and white had removed any doubts from their minds.
The four heifers were born to a cow named Becky on August 23, a blustery, wet evening.
Labour
After finishing the afternoon milking, Michael Kavanagh went to check on the springers (cows due to calve), and discovered a little calf. Then he saw that Becky was in labour.
He helped her deliver another small calf, but the cow didn’t stop there.
‘‘We were excited about twins, so we all rushed out to the paddock, then there was another one born,’’ Eileen Kavanagh said.
They decided to move Becky and her three babies into the nearby shed for shelter.
‘‘She was really slow, we had to walk her all the way, then I realised she was still in labour,’’ Michael said.
When he checked the cow’s uterus for tears, he felt another calf, so he helped her deliver that too.
The calves were small but healthy. Each weighed around 30kg, meaning the cow had been carrying about 120kg of calves.
‘‘She was huge - she’s a big cow but she was extra huge.’’
All the calves have names beginning with B because their mother is Becky and their father an LIC bull named Byburn.
The four all have pink ear tags and are living in a pen with straw bedding and getting extra good care, Michael said. ‘‘Mum’s making sure of that.’’
Six-year-old Becky was recovering well after developing ketosis and needing TLC following the calves’ birth.
Quadruplets are a rare occurrence in dairy cattle, LIC research scientist Lorna McNaughton said.
The incidence of quadruplets is reported as 1:650,000 in beef cattle.
‘‘Having all four calves be heifers and in good health is particularly lucky. They would be a good boost to the farm’s heifer calf ratio.’’
The DNA results had confirmed the heifers as non-identical quadruplets, so the cow would have produced four separate eggs all fertilised by one LIC insemination, she said.
Hawera vet Cathy Thompson said she had only heard of one other set of quadruplet calves born in Hawera, about 10 years ago.
But in that case only two calves had survived and the mother died as well.
‘‘To have all four survive and the mother as well is a much better news story,’’ she said.
Earlier this year a farmer in Ireland hit the headlines when he reported that one of his cows had given birth to four identical heifer calves.
It was such a rare event that the offspring became celebrities, with thousands of people showing up at Tom Clair’s in Ennistymon, north Co. Clare, to see the miracle calves with their own eyes after their arrival in February.
The calves also featured on news channels and entertainment programmes, the Irish farming news site Agriland reported.