The odds were “defied” after a set of triplet heifer calves were born on a farm in Co. Monaghan this week (Tuesday, January 30).
Farmer Niamh Monahan from Co. Monaghan said that the cow was an Angus cross and this is her sixth calving. She has now had nine calves.
Monahan said that she has no weights for the calves at the moment, but that they are healthy and getting much stronger.
“She has defied the odds 400,000/1,” Monahan said.
Monahan farms along with her dad Eamonn, rearing suckler cows along with a flock of pedigree Texel sheep. Lambing season has just begun for the pair.
Calves
Meanwhile on a dairy farm in Co. Galway, different breed (Heteropaternal) twin calves were born to a Fleckvieh-cross cow on a farm at Kiltullagh.
A somewhat unusual occurrence, the term “Heteropaternal twins” refers to twins with different sires, according to the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF).
Heteropaternal superfecundation (HS) occurs when two or more eggs are fertilised by two or more males during the same reproductive cycle.
Typically, HS in cattle is reported when the sire’s breed is phenotypically different such as a Fleckvieh and a Belgian Blue sire.
The Heteropaternal twins are from a first-cross Fleckvieh cow on her second lactation.