LOCAL cattle farmer Brenton Sessions is pinching himself after one of his Angus cattle gave birth to triplets earlier this month.
Mr Sesssions, the owner of family-run cattle breeding and selling operation Bellaspur Angus in Balmattum, had never seen triplets in his 29 years of cattle farming.
“Especially not live triplets – I’d never even heard of live triplets up until this happened,” he said.
They were first discovered by Georgia Mundy, who was farm-sitting while Mr Sessions’ parents were away.
“We just went to feed the hay in the afternoon and drive around all the cows like we always do, and she was just standing there with three calves,” Ms Mundy said.
Latest Stories
“She was feeding two and one was sitting down.”
Mr Sessions’ cattle have given birth to four sets of twins this calving season, making the birth of triplets even more uncanny.
“Multiples are a sign of a good season to come and … it's been an exceptionally high level of multiples this year, so hopefully it's a sign of better times and good seasons ahead,” he said.
The mother of the triplets, Desire, has now given birth to four calves in the last 10 months, after she gave birth to one calf in October last year.
The triplets have been named Fred, Wilma and Betty.
Holly Dever, a vet at Euroa Central Vets, said calf triplets are “not very common at all” and she had never seen them before.
She said a commonly cited study has put it at one in every 105,000 and she believes calf triplets have about an 80 percent survival rate.
University of Melbourne professor of production animals Peter Mansell told The Euroa Gazette one to three pc of calvings are twins, while triplets are “very unusual”.
The professor added that problems with the reproductive efficiency of female calf twins – a phenomenon called “freemartinism” – are also applicable to female calf triplets.
“The assumption is that the female has actually got defective reproductive organs, so we would generally recommend that female should not be kept in the herd, because they’re likely to not turn into a productive female,” Professor Mansell said.
Wilma and Betty did not respond to requests for comment.
