Photo from Pembina Valley Online. Taken by Tricia Oberle. Born January 20, 2021.
The chances of a cow giving birth to triplets is about one in 100,000. That doesn’t even take into account the odds of the triplets all being alive and healthy.
Oberle Farms in Saskatchewan got that lucky…TWICE! The first set of triplets was born on January 20th and the second set on the 27th. One of the owners Ralph Oberle, explained that the first set of triplets was the first time the farm ever had triplets born. “That had never happened on the farm. So, it’s a highlight of the farm,” Oberle said.
He brought up the fact that they assumed the first cow was giving birth to twins and they joked about her having triplets. “When the first one hit the ground, my son went in the back, and we got the second one. And we kind of joking said, lets go see if there’s a third one, and there was a third one,” Oberle said.
Photo from Pembina Valley Online. Taken by Tricia Oberle. Born January 27, 2021.
The farm’s veterinarian Mark Campbell, talked about how winter’s tough enough on a single-birth calf and even tougher on triplets. “Often, they’re a lot smaller and these cold temperatures can wreak havoc on a normal calving, let alone little triplets,” Campbell explained how he’s barely ever seen triplets, “I’ve been a veterinarian for over 30 years and I’ve only seen triplets a handful of times. So, to have two in the same week, on the same farm, is almost unheard of.”
Oberle said the six grade-Charolais calves and the two cows are doing fine so far.
