A Co. Kerry farmer got an unexpected surprise over the weekend when he ventured out early Saturday morning to check one of his cows that had been calving.
The Holstein-Friesian cow – which had been scanned in-calf with twins – had given birth to triplet calves; two heifers and a bull.
The farmer, Ronan Siochru – who is dairy farming in Dingle, Co. Kerry – commented: “She is a fourth calver and, up until now, she has always given birth to a single calf. The mother is out of ZPB and the sired bull is Mystic.
“I went out to check on her Saturday night at about 1:00am and she had one calf out and the other calf was on the way.
An hour later I came back, and I got a surprise when I saw three calves in the pen. I thought I had made some sort of mistake.
He added: “The cow and her calves are doing really well. The cow doesn’t even seem like a cow that has calved.
“I done a bit of research to see what the chances are of the two heifers being fertile. I found out that if the heifers have the same amount of black and white on them, there is a good chance that they will be.
“They seem to have an even enough amount of black and white, so hopefully they will.”