Cow Gives Birth To Quadruplets

[matcom]

<snip>

DEWEESE, Neb. --It wasn't that one of his cows had delivered twins that gave Paul Soucie pause when he checked his pasture. Eleven sets of twins had already been delivered this year on the farmstead near Deweese that Soucie runs with his wife, Janet. But what raised his curiosity on the morning of July 12 was that this particular cow still appeared pregnant.

"I said, 'She sure looks full for having already had twins. I wouldn't be surprised if she has another calf,'" Soucie said.

He was right.

The cow did indeed deliver another calf. Then another one.

When the Soucies checked their pasture on July 13, they discovered that the cow had given birth to four offspring without human assistance.

The mother and the four calves -- three heifers and one bull -- are all healthy, Soucie said.

Sherrill Echternkamp, a physiologist at the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center near Clay Center, said quadruplet calf live births are extremely rare.

"It's so rare that I'm not sure you could even calculate a probability," Echternkamp said.

The Soucies had no idea their cow was going to deliver so many offspring, which Janet said may have been a good thing.

"If we would've known she was going to have four, I'm sure we would've been worried," she said.

The Soucies breed Angus cattle with the Tarentaise breed, which Echternkamp said have a reputation for producing multiple offspring.

Paul Soucie has been raising cattle since 1977 and said he had never had a cow give birth to triplets, much less quadruplets.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/07/25/heifer_gives_birth_to_four_calves?mode=PF