A cow giving birth to twins is uncommon, but to triplets — especially healthy ones — is extremely rare. Yet that’s what happened at Ashton Creek Farm in Iowa, where a cow delivered three healthy calves without assistance.
Luke Stowater of Cow-Calf Operations told KTIV that the odds of triplets are about 1 in 105,000. Even more unusual, all three calves survived, and their mother accepted them naturally.
Multiple births in cattle are influenced by genetics and environment. Kansas State University’s Beef Cattle Institute reports that twin births occur in about 2 percent of beef cattle pregnancies. Most twins are fraternal, resulting from two fertilized eggs, while identical twins form when one fertilized egg splits. Research has confirmed that twinning runs in certain cow families and can be increased through selective breeding.
However, multiple births can have downsides. When a heifer and bull are born together, the female — called a freemartin — is usually infertile due to shared male hormones in utero. Over 90 percent of mixed-sex twin pregnancies result in infertile heifers. Nutrition also plays a role, as cows with higher glucose levels from high-energy diets tend to have increased fertility.
Triplets are rare, but even more extreme cases exist. A South Dakota cow gave birth to quadruplets in February, an event with 1-in-700,000 odds. The likelihood of all four surviving drops to 1 in 11.2 million. Even rarer, those quadruplets were all bulls — an occurrence with odds of 1 in 179.2 million.
A Black Angus cow in Kidder County, North Dakota, shocked her owners by delivering an extremely rare set of quintuplets last year — five calves, a phenomenon virtually unheard of in cattle ranching.
The cow, naturally bred by a herd bull, gave birth in mid-April, with three of the five calves surviving and thriving. According to KFRY-TV, ranchers Jonni and Clint Kramlich initially assumed she was carrying twins, given her enormous size, but were stunned as more calves kept coming.
After the first heifer was born unassisted in the corral, they brought the cow into the barn, where Jonni pulled a second live heifer. Thinking the birth was complete, they were caught off guard when Clint checked and discovered a third calf — a bull — also alive.
