by Lawrence Lannoo
A Glenora area farmer decided to check his camera feed to see what was happening for calving March 6th.
He discovered one of his cows had achieved a rare feat.
“I missed the first two,” he recalled in a phone interview, “but I did get to see the third one coming out.”
Rod Bolack realized the cow, a Simmental-Charolais crossbreed, had given birth to triplets, an occurrence he estimated happens in 1 out of every 100,000 births.
“The cow was okay,” he said. “They came out pretty easy.
“The calves weren’t very big, and the biggest one weighed about 50 pounds.”
Bolack, who has been farming for the last 30 years, said this was the second time one of his herd had produced triplets.
Unfortunately, he added, that first time resulted in the calves being born dead, so this second birth was a welcome change.
“We will leave one of them with the cow, but the other two we will bottle feed,” he said, adding the one staying with the mother was the strongest and started nursing first.
Since their arrival, the calves – two bulls and a heifer – have grown stronger and are “jumping around,” Bolack said.
He added his kids Breanne, age 12, and Ethan, age 16, were excited by the triplet’s birth, providing them with an opportunity to bottle feed the two separated from the mother.
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